
IM2 lifts off to the moon. Varda’s W2 lands in Australia. Astroscale Japan selected by Japan’s Ministry of Defense for a demonstration satellite. And more.
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Maria Varmazas
You're listening to the N2K space network.
Dave
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Maria Varmazas
Today is February 27th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T min.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
T minus 20 seconds.
Maria Varmazas
WeatherStream has been awarded a $2 million phase two Siber contract from the Office of Naval Research to further develop its multimodal platform for environmental remote sensing. Lumen Orbit has renamed itself as Star Cloud and has raised $10 million in new funding for its space based data. Astroscale Japan has been awarded a 7.27 billion yen contract by Japan's Ministry of Defense to develop a responsive space system demonstration satellite prototype. Vardo's W2 spacecraft lands in the Australian outback after completing its second mission. Intuitive machines Lunar Lander Athena is heading to the mo and our guest today is Colleen MacLeod Gardner, a commercial strategist and brand developer. And Colleen and I spoke about the crossover opportunities for the space industry and the need for good marketing. You can hear that chat after today's headlines. Happy Thursday everybody. It's getting busy on the highway to our nearest natural satellite as IM2 becomes the third commercial mission heading to the moon this year. At 7:17pm Eastern last night, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from the Kennedy Space center, putting the Athena lunar lander on its planned trajectory towards the moon. The Athena lander is expected to descend to touchdown on a flat mesa like structure known as mons Mouton on March 6, just 100 miles from the Moon's south pole. If they achieve the planned touchdown, it'll put the lunar probe closer to the south pole and than any other spacecraft has yet attempted. And as I mentioned, it is the third lunar lander heading to the moon right now. Times we live in, huh? Firefly's Blue Ghost is also expected to touch down on the lunar surface in the coming days. Both probes are part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and both are carrying commercial and federal payloads. The third mission is ICE based Japan's Resilience Lander which isn't expected to touch down until May. Athena's mission is the first to search for suspected ice from the moon's surface. On board, it has a hopper named Grace after software pioneer Admiral Grace Hopper, well known in the cybersecurity community and the mobile autonomous prospecting platform rover built by a company called Lunar Outpost. They will communicate with the Athena lander via cellular networking equipment provided by Nokia and a first of its kind demonstration. Additionally, a tiny micro rover known as Yaoki provided by Tokyo based Diamond Corporation will be dropped to the surface from the Athena lander. It'll provide close up images of the lunar soil or regolith and then beam them back to Earth through Athena. Athena is also carrying payloads for Lone Star Data Holdings, Columbia Sportswear and the German Aerospace center, or dlr. Athena, by the way, was not the only payload on the Falcon 9 rocket that launched it. Astroforge's Odin asteroid prospector was released four minutes after Athena. NASA's Lunar Trailblazer satellite was then deployed about 20 seconds after that, followed a few seconds later by Epic Aerospace's Chimera Geo 1 space tug. And we wish them all the best of luck on their missions. Calling all Spaceballs fans, the Winnebago is back on Earth. Varda's W2 space capsule, which was launched on January 14, has returned from its second mission in Leo. The capsule is carrying payloads for customers, including a spectrometer from the Air Force Research Laboratory in addition to Varda's expanded pharmaceutical reactor. According to a post shared on social media at 5:52am Pacific Time today, the W2 spacecraft successfully executed its final re entry burn and prepared to deorbit. 24 minutes later the capsule separated from the vehicle and after another 17 minutes the parachute's deployed and the capsule landed safely in the Australian outback. Varda says it'll be recovered by their team tomorrow during daylight hours. A huge congratulations to all involved. Astroscale Japan has been awarded a 7.27 billion yen contract by Japan's Ministry of Defense to develop a responsive space system demonstration satellite prototype. The project includes the development and testing of a proto flight model for a small geostationary demonstration satellite. The development and testing phase will run from March 2025 to March 2028. In the launch and operations phases, which will be managed under a separate contract, the satellite will demonstrate technologies to advance space domain awareness, space surveillance, intelligence gathering and space operations capabilities. Lumen Orbit has renamed itself as Star Cloud, great name by the way, and has raised $10 million in a seed funding round for its space based data centers, and the funding comes after December's announcement that the startup brought in $11 million from early investors. StarCloud is aiming to place a network of megawatt scale computer servers in Earth orbit, powered by grids of solar panels that could stretch as much as 2 1/2 miles in width. StarCloud's 132 pound demonstrator satellite is due to be launched into low Earth orbit by this summer by what else but a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Bandwagon 4 rideshare mission. And Weatherstream has been awarded a $2 million phase two supercontract from the Office of Naval Research to further develop its multimodal platform for environmental remote sensing. The company's platform spectrum enables rapid development of environmental algorithms from remote sensing data, supporting a wide range of applications including weather forecasting, atmospheric monitoring, and severe storm and hydro meteor detection. The Office of Naval Research is hoping that the satellite company's platform can be used for cutting edge meteorological use cases while reducing costs and N2K senior producer Alice Carrus has details on additional stories that didn't make it in today's Top five.
Alice Carrus
Alice thanks Maria. We always like to point out additional opportunities to read up on what's going on in the space industry. Today we have three additional stories included in our selected reading section of the show notes one on Satellogic's data set, now openly accessible on AWS details on Virgin Galactic's Q4 and full year 2024 financial results and an update on Etihad Sat.
Maria Varmazas
And remind us yet again als where can we find those stories?
Alice Carrus
As mentioned, links to those stories along with further reading on all the other stories mentioned throughout the show can be found in our Show Notes and on our website space.n2k.com and click on this episode title.
Maria Varmazas
Hey T minus crew. If your business is looking to grow your voice in the industry, expand the reach of your thought leadership or recruit talent, T minus can help. We would love to hear from you. Just send us an email@spacentuk.com or send us a note through our website so we can can connect about building a program to meet your goals.
Dave
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Maria Varmazas
Our guest today is Colleen MacLeod Garner, a commercial strategist and brand developer. Colleen and I spoke at Spacecom 2025 about crossover opportunities for the space industry and the need for good storytelling in this industry. Let me tell you, I was very invested in this conversation.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
My mission is amplifying every industry. All industry needs a space strategy. So if I was in a room with, you know, whatever company and they were asking me about the roi, I would say, number one, the reason that we are going to space is for Earth. A lot of people don't know that. They don't know that, you know, they're banking their Uber, their memory foam on their bed was all space. The general public doesn't know the space for Earth benefit. I think we need to do a better job of messaging that.
Maria Varmazas
Yes.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Which goes back to sales and marketing.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, that's true.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Right. And so I think what's fascinating is you've got what I like to call the second Kennedy moment where you have the head of, you know, the government, the head commander in chief saying, we are doing this, it's priority one.
Maria Varmazas
Yes.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Okay. That is going to move that cruise ship and everyone else will fall in line on that mission.
Maria Varmazas
That's right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so I think for many.
Unnamed Guest
Of us, like, we love space, it's great. It's an easy selling point for us. Like I'm thinking to myself, so okay, why is it that we don't see more collabs from non space businesses? But like, flip side, I feel like if we have this conversation with people who it's not as evident to like who are in the space industry, like, why is there hesitation from within the space world to also do those collaborations outside? You know what I mean? It's sort of like a two way thing of there's hesitation in both directions. But why? Because it just seems like a natural thing.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
It comes down to communication and there actually are some really talented people in our space side that are making those connections. I think there's a lot of meat on the bone still for a quote, marketing gimmick. I don't even like to say that because it sounds cheap. But I mean if you think about these multimillion dollar marketing budgets, some of these Companies have. They are always looking for the next innovative, coolest, sexiest thing.
Unnamed Guest
This is true, right?
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Yep. In order to refresh a brand, you innovate or you die. And so I think it's really just we need to have better communication, find the person in the haystack that's in charge of partnerships. That's it. There are some amazing people that I know personally that are doing those types of things and bringing more people into the ecosystem.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, yeah.
Unnamed Guest
I'm so curious. Like a conversation I've had a few times over the past few days here has been about how, like, the space industry has so much to learn from other businesses. Like, we don't need to reinvent how we do things because, like, the medical community or the hospitality community has been doing some of these things for decades.
Maria Varmazas
Really well.
Unnamed Guest
And like, space can learn from them. I'm curious, like, if. If you could, like make things happen.
Maria Varmazas
Out of thin air right now, what.
Unnamed Guest
Would, what would you like to see?
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Oh, my gosh, you have so many great questions.
Unnamed Guest
And it's also probably a really hard question to answer because it's like, I'm putting you on the spot for that. But, like, if you could, if you could have your druthers, like, what would, what would you want to see happen?
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Well, I mean, follow the money. Let's start there.
Unnamed Guest
Sure.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
I think we need to solve for that. And, you know, even talking with a lot of these entrepreneurs, I help out with some incubators. I love entrepreneurs. I love them at every stage. I want to help them, I want to see them succeed. The issue that you run into a lot of times, and I'm generally speaking, when you're dealing with people who are introverts, like a lot of scientists and engineers, there's a struggle to make people understand your widget.
Maria Varmazas
Very true.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Okay. Very true. And furthermore, I think in the space ecosystem, from what I have seen, is that you've got this amazing widget, you've been successful with said widget, and then you promote, you promote, you promote. But those people don't have business acumen or the, the business abilities or toolbox.
Maria Varmazas
Yes.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
I would say to set. To bring them to this. Profitability. Scalability.
Dave
Yeah.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
That you need to do or iterate or whatever. So you need a team of. We need the brilliant scientists and engineers. We can't do it without you. But we also need the sales and marketing and we need the business acumen, the strategy, the cfo. You know what I mean?
Maria Varmazas
I completely know what you mean. Yes.
Unnamed Guest
And I think it's I think it's interesting. It's like I completely agree with you and it's a conversation that I know that I've had this conversation with like my colleagues. It's like it's to me sort of like a lack of respect for what business functions can do when. And I don't mean this to be mean to like my engineering and science friends, but I know a lot of times they're like, well my product is so brilliant that why would I need.
Maria Varmazas
Someone to help me sell it?
Unnamed Guest
Like it should be self evident how great and how life changing and paradigm shifting this thing is. It's like that. I'm sure that's true.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Yes.
Unnamed Guest
But like if you don't know how to make a strong business case and communicate and like do an elevator pitch for the basics, like people don't know about you and it's like that requires respecting what these roles do.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
I agree. And I think there's also understanding how important it is.
Maria Varmazas
Yes.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
And so how do you explain to said entrepreneurs, said scientists, said engineer, that is the CFO or the CEO of a company to say, where's your sales and marketing team? What budget have you allocated to them? And they are like, well we don't need it. It's like, yes you do.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.
Unnamed Guest
And again, it is like respecting that expertise. Like we all of us on the comm side, we massively respect the expertise of our builder friends. But like flip side, those of us who tell the stories, who talk to people, who make those connections, that's a skill too. Like let's respect that. As you mentioned, you work with a lot of entrepreneurs. So when you are coaching them, guiding them, like what do you want them to know about building within the world, like the space world or else. But like outside of it, I ask.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
A lot of questions.
Maria Varmazas
Sure.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
I ask them, I ask them challenging questions to get them to get themselves to the correct answer. Right. So if one of the accelerators I'm on is biotech, okay, I know nothing about biotech. I love biotech. But if you're showing me a deck with an encyclo encyclopedia for your widget, like you lost.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Completely and utterly. You need to break it down. Like I'm a kindergartner. Right. Because if you are in going back to what you said about the elevator pitch, if you can't tell me what you do in one sentence, you're dead in the water. Forget about the funding, forget about all that stuff. Yeah.
Unnamed Guest
It's like I'm sure Your protein is really cool. But, like, what is that gonna do for me? And also.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Unnamed Guest
And it's because I'm sure people like yourself, you hear, like, all these amazing business ideas all the time, and it's very hard to sort of, like, there has to be something distinguishing there.
Maria Varmazas
There has to be that value proposal position. Right.
Unnamed Guest
If I'm using my correct terminology. Correct.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Yes, you are correct. Very good.
Unnamed Guest
I'm not a business person.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Yes, you are. You're using very business terms.
Unnamed Guest
I was like, yeah, I can't. I cannot do what you do, though, at all. At all. So I'm just like. I like stories, like, meeting people, but I could never. I'm not.
Maria Varmazas
I see.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
That's the hitch right there, friend. Storytelling.
Unnamed Guest
That's what I do. That is what it is. You know what?
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
You're in sales, sister. Own it. Oh, my God.
Maria Varmazas
Well, I'll take that.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
I'll take that.
Unnamed Guest
All right. Well, Colleen, this has been really fun. I want to make sure that I sort of give you the table for, like, our parting words. Anything you want to impart the audience with before we close out today.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Well, thank you for listening. I hope that your ears aren't bleeding.
Maria Varmazas
No.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
And I'm. Thank you for having me on the show.
Unnamed Guest
Thanks.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
And I will just say this. I am so full of hope right now in this time. It is an amazing time to be alive. I mean, seriously.
Unnamed Guest
Yeah, it is.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
And I think a lot. What I also would say is we stand on the shoulders of giants that came before and did all the hard things. And I would say respecting legacy and embracing innovation is where we're at.
Maria Varmazas
We'll be right back.
Dave
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Maria Varmazas
Welcome back. Blue Origin has announced the next crew for its New Shepard's 31st mission. And it's going to be one for the history books. And you'll probably be hearing about it also on entertainment news. That's because Blue has lined up an all female crew that includes activists, journalists, educators, CEOs. Oh, yeah, and a big old pop star. To say that they're a powerhouse would be an understatement. This flight, by the way, is the first all woman flight since the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova's solo space flight in 1963. Let's just let that one sink in for a moment. Anyway, the crew for New Shepherd's 31st mission includes Aisha Bell, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Carrie Ann Flynn, and Jeff Bezos's fiance, Lauren Sanchez, who brought the whole mission together. Lauren says she's honored to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come. My goodness. Oprah's Gale in space. What? I gotta admit, I did not see the Katy Perry announcement coming. I mean, what a dark horse. Are we going to hear her roar or is she gonna launch like a firework? Yes, there are three song titles in there. Sorry. You know, you were thinking it too. And whether or not the launch, which is expected to happen in the coming weeks, is used as a backdrop to a new music video or publicity stunt, it's regardless going to be an epic performance. These women are all incredible in their own rights, and we suggest you go and check them out by following the link in our show notes. Hint. Amanda Wynn is an absolutely incredible human being. We applaud Blue Origin for their empowering mission and hope to see a lot of coverage leading up to this amazing flight. Go, ladies.
Colleen MacLeod Gardner
Foreign.
Maria Varmazas
And that's it for T minus for February 27, 2025, brought to you by N2K CyberWire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes@space.n2k.com we're privileged that N2K and podcasts like T minus are part of the daily routine of many of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector, from the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. N2K's senior producer is Alice Carouse. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kilfie is our publisher. And I'm your host, Maria Varmazas. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T minus.
Dave
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Podcast Summary: T-Minus Space Daily Episode: Arise the Era of the Goddess Release Date: February 27, 2025 Host: Maria Varmazas, N2K Networks
In this episode of T-Minus Space Daily, hosted by Maria Varmazas from N2K Networks, listeners are treated to a comprehensive update on the latest developments in the global space industry. The episode features an engaging interview with Colleen MacLeod Gardner, a renowned commercial strategist and brand developer, who delves into the intersection of marketing and the space sector. Additionally, the podcast highlights significant missions and strategic advancements shaping the future of space exploration.
Maria Varmazas kicks off the episode by presenting a roundup of noteworthy headlines in the space industry:
WeatherStream Secures Naval Research Contract: WeatherStream has been awarded a $2 million Phase Two Siber contract by the Office of Naval Research. This grant aims to advance their multimodal platform for environmental remote sensing, enhancing capabilities in weather forecasting and atmospheric monitoring.
Lumen Orbit Rebrands to Star Cloud: Lumen Orbit has rebranded itself as Star Cloud and successfully raised $10 million in new funding. The startup focuses on establishing space-based data centers, with plans to deploy a 132-pound demonstrator satellite via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the summer as part of the Bandwagon 4 rideshare mission.
Astroscale Japan's Defense Contract: Astroscale Japan has been awarded a substantial 7.27 billion yen contract by Japan's Ministry of Defense. The project involves developing a responsive space system demonstration satellite prototype, aimed at enhancing space domain awareness and intelligence gathering.
Varda's W2 Spacecraft Returns Successfully: Varda's W2 spacecraft completed its second mission in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and safely landed in the Australian outback. The mission carried payloads for various clients, including a spectrometer from the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Intuitive Machines' Lunar Lander Athena Launch: Intuitive Machines successfully launched the Athena lunar lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Athena is on a mission to land near the Moon's south pole, aiming to search for suspected ice deposits—a critical step for future lunar exploration.
Notable Quote:
"Athena's mission is the first to search for suspected ice from the moon's surface." — Maria Varmazas [12:05]
Alice Carrus, N2K's senior producer, provides listeners with additional stories for those interested in deepening their understanding of the space sector:
Satellogic's Open Data on AWS: Satellogic has made its extensive data sets openly accessible on Amazon Web Services (AWS), facilitating broader research and development opportunities.
Virgin Galactic's Financial Results: An update on Virgin Galactic's Q4 and full-year 2024 financial performance, highlighting key milestones and future projections.
Etihad Sat Developments: Latest news on Etihad Sat, detailing recent advancements and strategic initiatives within the company.
Listeners can access these additional stories through the show notes available on the N2K Space website.
The centerpiece of this episode is an insightful conversation between Maria Varmazas and Colleen MacLeod Gardner, a commercial strategist and brand developer specializing in the space sector. The discussion centers on the critical role of marketing and storytelling in fostering collaboration and driving growth within the space industry.
Colleen emphasizes the importance of crafting a robust space strategy that not only advances space exploration but also benefits life on Earth. She highlights that many consumers are unaware of how space technologies underpin everyday products, such as transportation services like Uber or memory foam in mattresses.
Quote:
"The reason that we are going to space is for Earth. A lot of people don't know that." — Colleen MacLeod Gardner [10:26]
A significant portion of the conversation addresses the necessity for the space industry to adopt strong marketing practices to communicate its value proposition effectively. Colleen points out that despite the technical brilliance of space projects, without proper marketing, the broader benefits remain underappreciated.
Quote:
"If you can't tell me what you do in one sentence, you're dead in the water." — Colleen MacLeod Gardner [17:09]
Both Maria and Colleen discuss the existing hesitation within the space community to engage in cross-industry collaborations. Colleen attributes this to a lack of effective communication and the undervaluing of marketing roles within technical teams. She advocates for better integration of sales, marketing, and business strategies alongside scientific and engineering efforts.
Quote:
"We need the sales and marketing and we need the business acumen, the strategy, the CFO." — Colleen MacLeod Gardner [14:42]
Colleen stresses the importance of entrepreneurs in the space ecosystem possessing not only technical expertise but also business acumen. She encourages startups to simplify their communication, ensuring that their innovations are easily understood and their business cases are compelling to potential investors and partners.
Quote:
"If you are in going back to what you said about the elevator pitch, if you can't tell me what you do in one sentence, you're dead in the water." — Colleen MacLeod Gardner [17:09]
Concluding the interview, Colleen expresses optimism about the future of the space industry. She underscores the importance of respecting the legacy of pioneers while embracing innovative approaches to propel the industry forward.
Quote:
"We stand on the shoulders of giants that came before and did all the hard things. Respecting legacy and embracing innovation is where we're at." — Colleen MacLeod Gardner [18:31]
Towards the end of the episode, Maria shares exciting news about Blue Origin's upcoming mission:
Notable Highlights:
Quote:
"These women are all incredible in their own rights, and we suggest you go and check them out by following the link in our show notes." — Maria Varmazas [20:08]
The episode of T-Minus Space Daily offers a rich tapestry of current events, strategic insights, and forward-looking discussions that underscore the dynamic nature of the space industry. From groundbreaking missions and strategic partnerships to the indispensable role of marketing and storytelling, the podcast provides listeners with a holistic view of the factors driving space exploration and commercialization.
For more detailed information and access to additional resources discussed in this episode, listeners are encouraged to visit the N2K Space website and explore the show notes linked to each episode.
Produced by: Alice Carrus (Senior Producer), Liz Stokes (Producer) Mixed by: Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester Original Music: Elliot Peltzman Executive Producer: Jennifer Ibin Publisher: Peter Kilfie
Host: Maria Varmazas