[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is January 16, 2026. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 22nd to LOS Patriots. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] The next global positioning system satellite is switching launch vehicles from a ULA Vulcan rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9. Four. China launched a remote sensing satellite for Algeria on a Long March 2C rocket. Three. ISAR Aerospace is targeting its second flight and qualification mission from the company's dedicated launch complex at Andoja Space in Norway from January 21. Two. UTEL-SAT has signed a deal with French space startup Maya Space for future launches of its Leo satellites. One. The fiscal year 2026 NASA-NOAA appropriations bill clears the US Senate. [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] And it's Friday, so that can only mean one thing here on T-minus. Our colleagues at nasaspaceflight.com will be sharing the latest space traffic report with us later in the show, wrapping up the launch news from the last seven days and taking a look at what's to come in the week ahead. [MUSIC PLAYING] Congratulations, my friends. You made it to the end of another work week. Pat yourself in the back and let's dive into today's Intel briefing, shall we? First up, the US Senate has passed a second minibus of three fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills that includes the Commerce Justice Science Bill, which funds NASA and NOAA. It's a minor victory for funding the federal agency-- it is a minor victory for funding the federal agencies for the rest of this fiscal year, as they are still to be signed by President Trump into law. But if they are passed, it will be at levels much closer to fiscal year 2025 than to the deep cuts that were proposed by the Trump administration. The Senate bill approved significant science funding for NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, well above what the White House had sought. The National Science Foundation will receive $8.75 billion for research efforts, including in quantum information science, artificial intelligence, and other areas. The Senate rejected nearly all of Trump's cuts to NASA. The president had sought a $6 billion cut from the $24.9 billion budget, but the Senate voted for a much smaller cut, appropriating $24.44 billion in all. If, and it is still an if, if this bill isn't acted, it would mean departments and agencies in six of the 12 appropriations bills would be set for the rest of fiscal year 2026. The other six departments and agencies, however, including Defense, remain under consideration, and we will, of course, keep you posted on all further updates. UTEL-SAT has signed a deal with French space startup Maya Space for future launches of its low-Earth orbit satellites. Maya Space is a subsidiary of Europe's largest rocket maker Arian Group and has been contracted for a multi-launch deal set to start in 2027. Maya Space was founded in 2022 and expects to begin commercial operations this year. They're developing a partially reusable mini-launcher that would make it the first of its kind in Europe. No details were shared about the financial contract value with UTEL-SAT. And staying in Europe, ISAR Aerospace is targeting its second flight and qualification mission from the company's dedicated launch complex at Andoja Space in Norway. The launch is scheduled for no earlier than the 21st of January, with the launch window opening at 9 p.m. Central European time, subject to weather safety and range clearance. Daniel Metzler, who is the CEO and co-founder of ISAR Aerospace, says that this qualification flight is a deliberate step towards delivering sovereign access to space for Europe and Allied nations. Just 10 months after proving that launch vehicles can be designed, built and launched from continental European soil, we are ready to fly again. And we will bring you updates on that launch when it happens. Let's head on over to China now, and China is on a roll this week with launches. On Thursday, they launched a remote sensing satellite for Algeria. The spacecraft lifted off from the Jutron Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on a long March 2C rocket. The Alsat-3A satellite was then placed into its preset orbit. Alsat-3A was developed by China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and will be used for land planning and disaster prevention and mitigation. The launch is part of the Algeria Remote Sensing Satellite System Program, which is a joint project between China Great Wall Industry Corporation, which is a subsidiary of CASC, and the Algerian Space Agency. The program was agreed to in July 2023 and includes two optical remote sensing satellites, ground systems, training, and related support services. And the next global positioning system satellite is reportedly switching launch vehicles from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9. SpaceX could launch the GPS-3 Space Vehicle-09 within the next few weeks, and the spacecraft is entering the final stages of pre-flight preparations right now. But we gotta say, it's not actually bad news for ULA, as they will instead launch the third of the next generation of global positioning system satellites. The GPS-3 follow-on SV-13 satellite was originally scheduled to launch on a Falcon Heavy, but will now fly on Vulcan. According to a US Space Force spokesperson, SV-09 and SV-13 were traded between ULA and SpaceX to get capability to orbit as soon as possible, for the same reason as the prior swap, which resulted in the last GPS launch in May 2025. The trade results in an overall net cost savings to the government, and again demonstrates our sustained commitment to moving at speed to deliver combat-credible capabilities on orbit to meet more fighter needs. That switcheroo sounds like a win-win to us. And that wraps up today's Intel Briefing, and 2K Senior Producer Alice Carruth joins us now with a look at the other stories that are making today's headlines. Happy Friday, Maria. We've included two additional links in today's selected reading section of our show notes. They cover the news that Nigeria has granted satellite permits to Betel Satt, Satelio and Amazon's Khyper, and AST's announcement that they've been awarded a prime contract position on the US Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD program. And Alice, I hear we're going to be hearing more from you this weekend. Tell the crew what you're up to. Yes, I'm joining the NSF livestream of the Artemis 2SLS rollout starting at 7am Eastern tomorrow, Saturday, January 17th. So if you're looking for some company while you marvel at the crawler in operation, you can join me on the NASA Space Flight YouTube channel. And two quick programming notes for you listeners. This Monday, January 19th, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the United States, and it is a holiday. So we will not be publishing our daily Intel briefing that day. Instead, we will be sharing a special edition episode for you. It's my interview with Dave DeWalt, founder and CEO of security technology investment firm Night Dragon. So if you want to hear what VCs are focusing on in the current security and space technology landscape, this is the chat for you. That's Monday. Don't miss it. And our second programming note for you is about tomorrow's Saturday show. Be sure to check your podcast feed for T-Minus Deep Space. That's because it's our special edition Saturday show where we share an in-depth interview and dive a bit deeper into fascinating topics with brilliant guests. And on T-Minus Deep Space tomorrow, we have Zach Cassis signing me to talk about his new paper on his years-long research into using readily available signals from commercial Leo satellites as a resilient PNT alternative to GPS. The paper just won an IEEE award, in fact, and it is a really fascinating idea. You will want to hear about his findings for yourself. That is on T-Minus Deep Space tomorrow. Don't miss it. [Music] I'll hand you over now to nasaspaceflight.com for the Space Traffic Report. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF, and this is your weekly Space Traffic Report for T-Minus Space. Starting off the week on January 9th, SpaceX launched a Starlink mission from Florida. Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 2141 UTC with 29 Starlink V2 mini-satellites in its faring. SpaceX used booster B1069 for this mission, which successfully touched down on the deck of DroneChip, a shortfall of Gravitas, becoming the fourth booster to complete 29 missions. On the other side of the country, Falcon 9 launched NASA's Pandora satellite on January 11th. Pandora is a small space telescope on a mission to study exoplanet atmospheres. These distant planets are hard to observe directly, but if everything aligns just right, they pass, or transit, in front of their own star from the perspective of our telescopes, which slightly dims the star's light. What's more, the planet's atmosphere, if it has one, will also interact with the starlight to slightly alter its spectrum. Pandora will be studying this effect to help scientists determine the planet's makeup. The telescope is set to study at least 20 planets during its one-year mission. Pandora was joined on this flight by 39 small satellites for SpaceX's Twilight mission under the company's SmallSat rideshare program. Lifting off from Vandenberg on Sunday at 1344 universal time, booster B1097 carried the bunch on its fifth flight. It touched down successfully on landing zone 4, just a stone's throw from where it took off. We also had a launch from India this week, but unfortunately, this marked the year's first failed mission. So what happened? The Indian Space Research Organization launched its PSLV rocket on January 12th, lifting off from the Satish Devon Space Center at 448 UTC. It carried an Earth observation satellite for India's Defense Research and Development Organization, as well as 15 rideshare payloads, all destined for sun-synchronous orbit. The first phases of flight went as planned, but late in its burn, the rocket's solid third stage lost attitude control. While the fourth stage did separate and ignite successfully, it was unable to correct for the situation, resulting in the end of this mission and its payloads. Rather saliently, this mission was PSLV's return to flight after the previous mission in May of last year also experienced a failure during its third stage burn. It's too early to tell whether the two failures are related, but having two rockets fail in a similar manner is not a good look. Surprisingly, it seems that one payload did survive the failure -- the kid re-entry capsule from Spanish company Orbital Paradigm. This was the company's first re-entry mission, and it seems to have separated from the rocket and survived re-entry despite it being much more intense than planned, and it splashed down in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, the company didn't get any customer data back and, therefore, still declared the mission as failed. Later that day, SpaceX launched another Starlink mission from Florida. Lifting off from Slick 40 at 2108 Universal Time on January 12, this mission added 29 more Starlink V2 mini satellites to the constellation. The booster for this mission was B1078 on its 25th flight, which ended with a successful touchdown on the deck of Just Read the Instructions. China also had its first launch of the year this week, and it started off 2026 with a Changjiang 6A launching from Taiwan on January 13. Lifting off at 1416 Universal Time, the satellite lofted a military remote-sensing satellite into low-Earth orbit. There's something very unusual about this one, though. The orbit is highly retrograde, so against the direction of our planet's rotation. This requires much more propellant than a normal prograde orbit, so they must have a very specific purpose for this satellite. However, without more information, all we can do is speculate. Just over an hour later, a Changjiang 8A lifted off from the commercial side of China's Wenchang spaceport. This one was much less mysterious, though, as it launched a batch of nine satellites for China's state-owned Guangdong Internet Constellation, also known as SatNet. The constellation is ultimately planned to grow to 13,000 satellites, but it needs many more launches before it gets even close. The next day, we had another Starlink mission lifting off from Cape Canaveral. With 29 Starlink V2 mini-satellites in its faring, Falcon 9 took off from Slick 40 on January 14 at 1808 UTC. It was booster B1085's 13th flight, which ended with a successful landing on droneship a shortfall of Gravitas. With the three Starlink launches this week, SpaceX added 87 satellites to the constellation, bringing the total number launched to 10,955. Of those, 1,453 have returned back to Earth, and 8,262 are now in their operational orbit. We also had the return of Crew 11 from the International Space Station this week. You've probably heard that NASA expedited this process after one of the four astronauts had a medical issue, and although the situation was stable, the agency wanted to get the astronaut back on the ground sooner to provide better care in a fully equipped medical facility. In the days following the announcement, the crew began to prepare for their return, which started with Crew Dragon Endeavour, undocking from the station at 2220 UTC on January 14. On that day, Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, pilot Mike Fink, and mission specialist Kimia Yui and Oleg Platinov donned their spacesuits, entered Dragon Endeavour, closed the hatch, and departed the station. They didn't leave the ISS unattended, though, as the Soyuz MS-28 crew, who arrived in November, remained on board the orbital outpost. The trio, composed of commander Sergei Kudzverchkov, flight engineer Sergei Mkaev, and flight engineer Chris Williams, will keep the station running until the next crew arrives. A few days before leaving the station, Mike Fink handed over command of the station to Sergei Kudzverchkov, and all station crew members were present during the ceremony, broadcast live from the station. All in all, the return seemed very normal. After all, this wasn't an emergency return during which the astronauts can evacuate the station and be on their way home in just a few hours. Instead, NASA and SpaceX executed the normal procedures just a few weeks earlier than planned. So, after orbiting Earth for about nine hours, Endeavour performed its deorbit burn, reoriented for reentry, jettisoned its trunk, and began reentry. The capsule made it successfully through the anticipated blackout period, during which plasma buildup inhibits communications, and not too long after, Dragon and its crew softly splashed down under parachute. Once fished out of the Pacific by SpaceX's recovery vessel Shannon, teams helped the astronauts out of their spacecraft after which they boarded a helicopter to make their way back to dry land. From there, the procedures were slightly different, as the astronauts would normally return to Houston immediately. Instead, NASA decided to have them stay at a hospital near San Diego for the night before returning to Houston. Back in China, a Chongjiang-2C took to the skies above the Jochuan Satellite Launch Center to carry an Earth Observation Satellite into Sun Synchronous orbit. The satellite was built in China for the Algeria Space Agency. To launch it, the rocket ignited its engines and lifted off at 4.01 Universal Time on January 15. Later that day, we had the launch of Galactic Energy Series 1S, lifting off at 20.10 UTC. This is the sea-launched variant of the Series 1, so it launched from the D'Fou 15001 barge stationed in China's coastal waters. Going into next week, we'll have the first flight of Galactic Energy Series 2 rocket, which is a larger and improved version of Series 1. The launch is scheduled for January 17, lifting off from Jochuan. SpaceX is planning to launch three missions next week. One batch of Star Shield satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office will lift off from Vandenberg in California on January 17. This is a return to launch site mission, so prepare for sonic booms if you're in the area. SpaceX's other two scheduled missions are, of course, Starlink missions. One from either coast. Next week, we might also see Blue Origin launch its suborbital NS-38 mission on New Shepard. Rocket Lab is planning to launch its first flight of the year, named the Cosmos We'll See You Now, with the window for the mission opening on January 21. This mission is set to launch from the company's own launch complex in New Zealand. Over in Europe, we might see the second flight of Esar Spectrum Rocket launching from Andoja in Norway. The window for this mission opens on January 20. China is planning to return the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule from the Tiangong Space Station. Its crew left the station last year aboard the Shenzhou-21 capsule to avoid risk after their own capsule was damaged by space debris. The Shenzhou-20 capsule will now return without crew, with landing under parachute scheduled for January 19. Now, there is always a chance that schedules will change, and more launches might appear throughout the week. To stay up to date, we recommend checking our next spaceflight app and website for the latest on all space traffic events. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF, and that's your weekly space traffic report. Now back to T-Minus Space. We'll be right back. [whoosh] Welcome back. Today is the 2026 National Appreciator Dragon Day. Is that what again? Truly, there is a national day for everything. Friday, January 16th, is an annual observance encouraging people to celebrate dragons! Mythology, fantasy, and culture through activities like reading dragon-themed books, sharing stories, or enjoying dragon art and media. And long-time T-Minus listeners have probably gathered by now that I am, how shall we say it politely? A giant nerd. So, I really don't need much encouragement to appreciate a dragon. If anything, dragon appreciation and geekery is the background radiation of my entire life. But it's a space show, Maria, and dragons aren't real. So, unless you're talking about a dragon capsule of the SpaceX variety, and goodness me, you guessed it! So, today, on this National Appreciator Dragon Day, let's take a T-Minus moment and appreciate the SpaceX Dragon Capsule, shall we? Let's do it. The very first Dragon Capsule, the Dragon One, was a cargo capsule that made its maiden launch and flight back in 2010. It was developed specifically for International Space Station Resupply Services and was notable then and now for its reusability. It and later versions could survive multiple launches and re-entries all while protecting precious cargo aboard. That was, and honestly still is, a huge paradigm shift from the single-use cargo capsules that came before it. And that's just the Dragon One. The SpaceX Dragon Two iteration of the capsule was introduced to the world in 2019, and yes, reusable like its predecessor, the Dragon Two has a cargo variant and a crew variant. There are currently five Crew Dragon vehicles, which are used for both government and private human spaceflight missions. And those Crew Dragons are the Endeavour, the Resilience, the Endurance, the Freedom and the Grace. All truly lovely names for dragons, if you ask me. [Music] And that's T-minus brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like our show, please share a roar and review in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes and send an email to space@n2k.com. We're proud that N2K Cyberwire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector. From the Fortune 500, the many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. N2K helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, the technology, and the ideas, shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how at N2K.com. N2K Senior Producer is Alice Carruth. Our Producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our Executive Producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpe is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. Have a great weekend. [Music] T-minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
