← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
As New Glenn levels up, Starship stumbles.
00:25:00
New Glenn to receive upgrades. Starship’s booster 18 suffers a mishap. A SpaceX Falcon 9 mission marks the 100th launch from Florida this year. And more.
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You're listening to the N2K space network.
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Foreign. Today is November 21st, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T minus T minus 20 seconds. Los T Drift go for deploy rod and roll. 5 the UK Space Agency is investing 6 in satellite technology the European Space Agency plans to establish a central hub for all of its exploration activities in Cologne, Germany. A Falcon 9 mission to launch new Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit marked the 100th launch from Florida's Space coast this year. 2 SpaceX's Starship booster 18 suffered a mishap which caused space significant damage during static testing. Blue Origin has announced a series of upgrades to New Glenn designed to increase payload performance and launch cadence. And it is Friday, so our partners@nasaspaceflight.com will be bringing us the latest space traffic report, wrapping up the launch news from the last seven days, and taking a look at what's on schedule for the coming week. Stick around for more on that after today's intelligence briefing. Happy Friday everybody. Thank you for joining me. Let's dive in. First up, Blue Origin has announced a series of upgrades to New Glenn, and they're designed to increase payload performance and launch cadence. After only two test flights, the second one achieving all of its primary goals, Blue Origin has decided that New Glenn could do more, and they say that the enhancements span propulsion structures, avionics, reusability and recovery operations and will be phased into the upcoming New Glenn missions beginning with NG3. The aim is to upgrade New Glenn to an additional super heavy class to rival SpaceX's Starship. Hmm, things are getting interesting. A new new Glenn 9x4 will be designed for a subset of missions requiring additional capacity and performance. Blue Origin says the new 9x4 and the current variant, the 7x2, which refer to the number of engines on each stage, will serve the market Concurrently giving customers more launch options for their missions, including mega constellations, lunar and deep space exploration, and national security imperatives such as you knew it. Golden Dome. But with all this news about New Glenn and its comparison to SpaceX's Starship, well, that couldn't come for a worse time for SpaceX. They suffered a mishap overnight which caused significant damage to a booster during static testing. The company had only just rolled out the massive rocket out of the factory a day earlier to start the new test campaign. SpaceX then shared on social media that the first operations will test the booster's redesigned propellant systems and its structural strength. Well then they video shared a little after 4:00am local time at the test site near Starbase appeared to show the rocket's lower half experiencing an explosive or possibly implosive event. I'm just going to say it, the images look pretty bad. This was the First Starship version 3, which was intended to have many design fixes and upgrades from the previous iterations of Starship vehicles to improve the reliability and performance of the massive rocket. We will of course let you know if SpaceX releases any further details about this incident. And you know, we did say that 2025 was going to be a record breaking year for launch here in the United States, but did any of us really predict, or should we say believe that we would be in the triple digits for launch so soon? Well, last night, a Falcon 9 mission to launch new Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit marked the 100th launch from Florida's Space coast this year alone. Now, they already smashed previous records of 93 launches in a 12 month period. I covered it on a previous show and that number is still expected to rise over the next six weeks. The Eastern Range, which is operated by the Space force's space launch Delta 45 wing, is the busiest spaceport in the world, accounting for more than a third of all orbital launches. In 2025, it has qu quadrupled the number of orbital launches in five years. Bravo. Seriously. Until 2020, the annual launch rate from the pads at Cape Canaveral Space force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space center only twice exceeded 25 orbital launches in a year. So again, Bravo to all involved. And what a sign for things to come in this growing space industry of ours. As our European listeners will doubtless know, there is a lot going on on the other side of the pond from me at the moment. With many gathering in Germany for the Space Tech Expo in Bremen this week, the conference was the backdrop of the European Space Agency's announcement of its plans to establish a central hub for all of its exploration activities in Cologne, Germany. The European Space Agency signed a letter of intent with the State of North Rhine Westphalia and the German Aerospace center defining the next steps for the construction of a new building in Cologne. The project includes the construction of a new 20 million euro building on the grounds of the European Astronaut center to accommodate staff of the Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate, which is currently based in the Netherlands. The new facility is expected to be delivered by the end of 2028, with the costs of construction being equally shared between ESA and the State of North rhine Westphalia. The UK Space Agency is investing 6.9 million pounds in satellite technology that they say will transform connectivity and secure Britain's place as a European space leader. The funding will support five projects through the European Space Agency's Advanced Research and Telecommunications Systems, or artes program. Orbit FAB will deliver the advancing SATCOM technology with refueling and logistics or the Astral project with a total UK funding of up to £2.9 million. The contract for the first stage of the mission, worth £1.3 million, has now been awarded by ESA. Gunhilly Earth Station in Cornwall will lead the Antenna Ground Interface and Lunanet Equipment project, better known as Agile, supported by £1.6 million in funding. Vicinity Technologies will receive £1.19 million for its 5G NTN based satellite Access Networks projects. Archangel Lightworks, with the support of Eutelsat, will advance optical communications through the Space Optical Link Integration Study, or SOLIS project and that will be funded with 356,000 pounds. And Inmarsat Navigation Ventures Ltd. Which is Viasat UK, will receive 881,000 pounds for the International Virtual Satellite Operators Network Phase 2 project. Now UKSA says all of these projects showcase British expertise in generation satellite technologies and strengthen the UK's role in advanced communications. And you, my friends, can read more about all of those selected projects along with further information on all of the other stories that I've mentioned throughout today's Intel Briefing by following the links in the Selected Reading section of our show Notes. And speaking of those notes, we have producer Liz Stokes joining us now with a look at the other stories that are included in there today. For you, Liz, what do you have for us?
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Hey Maria. Janice Henderson, on behalf of accounts managed by its adversary affiliates, will make a strategic investment in Star Lab Space. The amount of that investment, however, has not been disclosed and both Spaceport America and Maritime Launch in Canada have hosted space suborbital launches this week from their facilities links to those stories in addition to the show. Notes can be found on our website.
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Space.N2K.Com thank you Liz. And you know we here at T minus ask a lot of questions and we bet that you do too. Is there something that you've been wondering about lately that you just need some answers to? Space related? I mean, maybe a particularly confounding new technology concept or hard to decipher bit of governmental regulation that could use some context, especially now that the US Government is back open, Hooray. Or just like what's the deal with and that's the part you fill in. Dear listener, I'm sure there is something on your mind and honestly we want to know what are you mulling over? What's the workplace debate of the day where you're at? That could be a great topic for us to cover on T minus. So please tell us about it, email us@space2k.com and tell us more. And thank you.
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It being Friday, that means it is time for our weekly launch check in with our partners@nasaspaceflight.com and their space traffic report.
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I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF and this is your weekly space Traffic report for T Minus Space. It was another busy week in spaceflight with four Falcon 9 flights from Florida, each carrying Starlink satellites into the Group 6 shell of the Mega Const. We start off with the launch of two Starlink missions less than four hours apart on November 15th. The first Falcon 9 lifted off from LC39A at the Kennedy Space center at 308 UTC, carrying 29 Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit. This was SpaceX's 150th mission of the year so far. Booster B1092 flew for the eighth time and landed successfully on the droneship, a shortfall of Gravitas from nearby SLC 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Another Falcon 9 launched just hours later at 6:44 UT carrying another 29 Starlink satellites. This was the 24th flight for booster B1078 which successfully touched down on the deck of SpaceX's drone ship. Just read the instructions. Moving over to the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, another Falcon lifted off on November 17th at 5:21 UTC. Onboard was the joint US European Sentinel 6B satellite. This will map ocean topography, monitor sea levels and support climate forecasting in cooperation with NASA and other agencies worldwide. Being a NASA licensed mission, this flight wasn't sub subject to the temporary FAA launch restrictions which have since been lifted. The mission also marked the 500th reflight of a Falcon. Booster B1097 was on its third flight and successfully performed a return to launch site maneuver, landing back on the concrete pad at landing zone four. Next we move to the Wallops flight facility in Virginia and the first of two Electron launches this week, launching from LC2 at 1300 UTC on November 18th. The van mission was another suborbital hypersonic research flight using Electron's Haste variant, which broke Rocket Lab' previous record of 16 Electron flights set last year. Moving back to Florida, another Falcon 9 launched 29 more Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit on November 19th at 12 minutes past midnight UTC. Booster B1085 flew for the 12th time, landing successfully on the deck of Droneship, a shortfall of Gravitas waiting downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. The first of two Chinese satellites this week took flight from the Zhouchuan Satellite Launch center in northwestern China on November 19, lifting off at 4:01 UTC. A Chun carried three Xijian 30 satellites into low Earth orbit, which are said to support space environment measurements. A second rocket Lab ELECTRON took flight this week on November 20th at 12:43 UTC. This one was a secretive orbital mission called Follow My Speed. This was the 76th electron to fly and lifted off from Launch Complex 1A at the company's launch site in the Mejia Peninsula of New Zealand. While details of the customer and payload were withheld, this flight was suspected to carry the third of five batches of BlackSky Third Generation Earth Imaging satellites said to produce images at a half a meter resolution. The fourth and final Starlink launch of the week took place on November 21 from LC39A at the Cape lifting off in 339 UTC. This was the 87th mission for the Group 6 Shell, which is by far the most served layer in the Starlink architecture, with even more missions planned for this group in the near future. Booster B1080 flew for the 23rd time, touching back down on the SpaceX droneship. Just read the instructions waiting downrange. This mission brings the total number of Starlink satellites launched up to 10,444. Of these, 1,394 have deorbited and 7,778 are now in their operational orbit. Finally, A Changjong 3B also launched on November 21, lifting off from Launch Complex 2 at the Shichang Satellite Launch center in China at 10:55 UTC. At the time of recording, there were no details about the payload carried aboard this mission. Going into next week we have at least 10 launches planned, including two from Russia, one from French Guiana, and even more from China and South Korea. China is preparing to launch a Changzhong 2F from the Zhochuan Satellite Launch center on November 25th carrying the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft. This will be the first time a Shenzhou craft will be launched uncrewed since Shenzhou 814 years ago. The capsule will replace the spacecraft that was used by the Shenzhou 20 crew to return home this week after their own ride was damaged by orbital debris. A fine crack was discovered on one of the two windows on the original Shenzhou 20 spacecraft and it was deemed unfit to re enter with crew. As a result, the Shenzhou 20 crew returned home last week in the spacecraft that brought up their successors. The Shenzhou 21 trio have only just begun their six month rotation and will use this replacement Shenzhou 22 craft to return home next April. Russia is preparing to launch an Angara 1.2 rocket from the Plisetsk Cosmodrome on November 25. This will carry a classified payload into low earth orbit for the Russian military. Another Russian rocket is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan later in the week. On November 27, a Soyuz 2 1A will carry the MS.28 crewed mission to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Christopher Williams will be joined by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud Sverchkov and Sergey Mikhayev. The trio will spend around eight months on the space station. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute is planning to launch a three stage KSLV2 rocket, also known as Nori, on November 26 from the Narrow Space center in South Korea. The CAS 503 Earth Observation Satellite will be sent to a sun synchronous orbit to test new technologies and conduct space research. There are four more Starlink missions planned next week aboard Falcon 9 for groups 6, 11 and 15 of the megaconstellation. Another Falcon 9 will launch from the West coast on November 26th carrying the 15th transporter rideshare launching from SLC4E at Vandenberg. Finally, a Vega C is set to launch from the Guiana Space center in French Guiana on November 28. Compsat 7 is a Korean multipurpose satellite with high resolution Earth imaging on board. It's the third and final flight this year for the Vega C, but not the last for launch provider Arianespace. The company has one more mission planned for late December when it will launch a pair of Galileo satellites for the European Space Agency. I'm Alicia Segal for NSF and that's your weekly Space traffic Report. Now back to T minus Space.
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We'll be right back.
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At Talas, they know cybersecurity can be tough and you can't protect everything. But with Thales, you can secure what matters most. With Thales industry leading platforms, you can protect critical applications, data and identities anywhere and at scale with the highest roi. That's why the most trusted brands and largest banks, retailers and healthcare companies in the world rely on Thales to protect what matters most, applications, data and identity. That's Thales. T H A L E S learn more@talasgroup.com cyber.
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Welcome back. All right, who had moss in space on their bingo card, a new report in the journal Eye Science shows what happened to moss grown in the harsh environment of space for nine months in 2022. And then what happened to that moss when returned to Earth? Just to be clear, this was not moss grown inside the shielded, pressurized and oxygenized International Space Station in one of those very protective scientific experimentation shoeboxes. Oh no. This moss was grown on the outside of the International Space Station. Yes, you heard me right. Tacked right onto the outside, completely exposed to the vacuum of space and cosmic radiation and all of that. That for nine months. So could the moss survive? To just about everyone's surprise and delight who has heard this story, the answer is a resounding yes. The researchers found that the moss spores not only endured, over 80% of them did. In fact, they also retained their vitality. And those are the words from the researchers. And they were still capable of reproducing when they eventually returned to Earth. Yes, the space exposed moss were able to spawn new moss growth when they got back home. And no, that is not the start of some sci fi cautionary tale. The study says based on their findings, moss spores could also provide protection against UV heat and intensive light stresses. Wild, right? Truly, moss is a role model for us all, surviving and thriving in the ultimate extreme environment. She's in her resilience era, babe. The research into this amazing moss that has captured a lot of hearts and headlines around the world today comes to the world thanks to a number of research institutes throughout Japan led by Hokkaido University. And as someone who has spent quite a lot of time in that country and appreciated many a beautiful mossy Zen garden there, Japan leading the global understanding on the amazing things that moss can do feels absolutely correct to me. So let's give it up for the way tougher than we humans realized moss known as Phiscomitrella patens and its spores. Who knew that these plants could endure extreme environments like space? Well, perhaps anyone who has tried removing it from where it doesn't belong. Because getting rid of moss from where you don't want it can be a real chore. Many of us can attest to that. What a fascinating experiment into this bryophyte though. And that is a type of plant mosses. Remember that, because we will no doubt be continuing to learn a lot about its adaptations. Undoubtedly we'll one day see some truly wild future applications for these moss based insight in space exploration and maybe even extraterrestrial habitats. EVA suits internally coated with soft moss. A rolling ISS gathering some moss. Those aren't my pitches for a new John Carpenter horror flick. Because one day, who knows, they could be real. And that's T minus. Brought to you by N2K CyberWire we would love to know what you think of our podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like the show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to space2k.com we are proud that N2K Cyberwire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators and in the public and private sector. From the Fortune 500 to 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@n2k.com N2K's senior producer is Alice Carouse. Our producer is is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our Executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kilby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. Have a great weekend.
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T minus.
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