Cybersecurity Announcer (8:34)

Ever wished you could rebuild your network from scratch to make it more secure, scalable and simple? Meet Meter, the company reimagining enterprise networking from the ground up. Meter builds full stack zero trust networks including hardware, firmware and software all designed to work seamlessly together. The result? Fast, reliable and secure connectivity without the constant patching, vendor juggling or hidden costs. From wired and wireless to routing, switching, firewalls, DNS security and vpn, every layer is integrated and continuously protected in one unified platform. And since it's delivered as one predictable monthly service, you skip the heavy capital costs and endless upgrade cycles. Meter even buys back your old infrastructure to make switching effortless, transform complexity into simplicity, and give your team time to focus on what really matters helping your business and customers thrive. Learn more and book your demo@meter.com cyberwire that's M E T E R.com cyberwire.

Maria Varmazes (9:53)

Our guest today is Dr. Melissa Patton from Patton Consulting Group. Dr. Patton is hosting a panel at Spacecom next week and has a big announcement coming out at the conference and I'll let her tell you more.

Dr. Melissa Patton (10:09)

I am the newly appointed CEO of Space Grove. I also am a previous educator. I've been 20 years in education, worked my way up from admissions entry level to a chief academic Officer and dean and I've also been tenured at Eastern Florida State College here in Brevard County. And I guess I got bored one day and just decided, hey, I'm going to cash in my savings, retire and do a start startup. And that's how I kind of got into space. My, my startup that my husband and I started was an integration of the first space adjacent. So we took space in STEM and we intersected it with collegiate and elementary and middle school athletes. And so the liberal arts component, the conversational opportunities, all of those aligned really nicely with being connected to the space and STEM industry. So that's how I got my start. And now I'm at Space Grove, which launches in a couple weeks.

Maria Varmazes (11:10)

Let's start with spacecom because there's a lot going on at spacecom for you and for Space Grove and you're going to be on a panel at spacecom as well.

Dr. Melissa Patton (11:19)

So let's start there.

Maria Varmazes (11:20)

About the panel, tell me a bit about that.

Dr. Melissa Patton (11:22)

Yeah, yeah. So I'm actually really excited about this. My panel is one of the best panels that will ever be at spacecom. I'm not telling you only because the lineup is incredible. If you're a local, you understand why it's incredible. But even more so if you're a national international space ecosystem member, you understand that having Carol Craig from Cituspace, having Robert Fabian from Viyaspace, Dr. Stephanie Sherby, an executive at all points. Randy Trask, Q Station. So you've got innovation hubs and you know, the opportunity to bring economic development in the millions to different companies around the country. And then I've got my international partner, Mike Curtis Rouse, who's from isam. It's a panel that is going to really be impactful. I do believe that we're going to be able to share not only what's going on now, but the future of manufacturing, satellite manufacturing.

Maria Varmazes (12:23)

Oh, interesting. Okay, so where can we get a preview of some of your thoughts for that panel? Or is it a wait and see situation?

Dr. Melissa Patton (12:30)

Well, I can't tell you all my dirty secrets, but my panel and I, as crazy as this sounds, we've already met and had a pre read of kind of how we're going to organize our thoughts for this. And what was really important to me, especially in picking the people on the panel, was for this not to be boring and for them not to have been able to chatgpt the answers. They're unconventional in how they get things done and that's why they're leaders in industry. So I am thrilled to have them.

Maria Varmazes (12:58)

You also mentioned that at spacecom, Spacegrove is coming out of stealth essentially. So I really want to hear the pitch for Space Grove please, if you don't mind.

Dr. Melissa Patton (13:07)

Yeah, so Space Grove is an innovation hub, but it's so much more than that. It will be a physical space physically located in Brevard County. We do have a potential anchor tenant which is a major government agency. In addition to that, you'll have the innovation hub there with also major partners backing everything that's going on within the hub. So that's the physical space, there's also the global space. So there's the connections and the collaborations with the international agencies. Italian Space Agency, UK Space Agency, Australian Agency, Space Agency, all of those different agencies being able to collaborate. I just got off a call with like 50 other individuals from the UK Space Agency and and globally. The conversation is about how do we drive deals and where do we go to do that. And so spacecraft will the solution as a one stop shop. A place where people can go to get their questions answered when it comes to the space ecosystem. And I think much deeper than that, it provides the space for deal flows. We're VC backed, investor backed. So we're really friendly with a non conventional kind of model where we can help companies receive the dollars that they need to drive in these government contracts and to receive these streams of revenue. So I think that's the biggest part and then another part of that is building up the space community and the ecosystem. If you're coming over from Israel and you want to have a physical spot here, where do you build? Where do you go? Well that's the real estate development part of Space Grove Ventures. It allows for us to imagine what it would look like to have a community with houses and stores and, and these buildings infrastructure and we build that out for the space ecosystem.

Maria Varmazes (15:01)

That vision sounds amazing and honestly it also sounds like it's something that the space industry community has been sort of looking for for quite some time in Brevard county specifically. I mean that. So that is definitely fitting a need that I know I've been hearing about. And the vision also with not just an inch an incubator space, but also with the housing. That's really interesting. That is definitely. I would not have expected that, but that makes a ton of sense.

Dr. Melissa Patton (15:29)

Yeah, I mean if you're just looking at Brevard county and you're driving down Courtney Parkway, which will lead you straight to the launch pad, there is, and I don't want to give away all my secrets but there are miles and miles of just open land. Now, there's reasons why that land is not, you know, doesn't have infrastructure there. But when I go outside my office and I want to go have a cup of coffee with someone, I have to go on the other side of the bridge. There are no coffee places on my side of the island. There's no restaurants, there's only three gas stations. And this is one of the, the largest areas, the largest area for a launch capability. So when you look at that and then you look at the broader horizon and then you look at it from a, from a national perspective, there's a lot of room for us to grow.

Maria Varmazes (16:16)

That's exciting. I can't wait to learn more about this. And it sounds like the opportunity for that will be at a launch party I've heard something about. So.

Dr. Melissa Patton (16:24)

Yeah, so I, I'm really fortunate to have some great friends that are going to help launch us off. We've got several headline speakers, one from the United States Space Force, UCF Superintendent of Brevard Public Schools. I'm excited for the, the VIP participants. This is invite only and so we will have the, the biggest and the best of, of the space ecosystem represented from industry, government, academia and workforce development.

Maria Varmazes (16:57)

That sounds great. So for our industry listeners, which is a lot of people listen to this show, what do you want them to know about Spacegrove?

Dr. Melissa Patton (17:04)

So I want you to know that now there is a place, There is a place. There is one unified hub that has an opportunity for you to get your questions answered and for you to be able to understand how to do what you're trying to do, whether you're international or whether you're right here in the States, we can support you. We also have great partners like Space Florida and like the Economic Development Organization here in Brevard County. So we're doing life with them as well to make sure that we've come up with an opportunity for you. We're scalable. I've already kind of given you a sneak preview that after we stand up this physical hub, we are licensing Space Grove. So that's, that's important to realize that there is a, there is a point too to it. And then the real estate side of things allows real opportunity for you to actually physically have a place. And we're doing that as well for our partners.

Maria Varmazes (18:03)

I cannot wait to Learn more at Spacecom. So, Dr. Melissa Patton, it's been truly a joy speaking with you. I want to make sure if there's anything I missed that you wanted to make sure to mention to the audience that I give you the podium. Anything at all, by all means.

Dr. Melissa Patton (18:17)

I would love to mention a couple things. Number one, come out and support spacecom, get a ticket, come on out and then of course come see me at 2:30 on Thursday moderating and I'll have to do it in my moderation voice from Tarmac to tomorrow around systemic driving, satellite manufacturing and scalable space infrastructure. So come out and see our group and then if you something about Space Grove really intrigued you, feel free to send me a Note either on LinkedIn or email and I will send you an invite to our launch party. We are hoping to bring in some equity partners and if that's you, you want to actually make some money when you put your money where it is. I would also be more than happy to look at that as well.

Maria Varmazes (19:16)

We'll be right back.

Cybersecurity Announcer (19:21)

When it comes to mobile application security, good enough is a risk. A recent Survey shows that 72% of organizations reported at least one mobile application security incident last year and 92% of responders reported threat levels have increased in the past two years. Guard Square delivers the highest level of security for your mobile apps without compromising performance, time to market or user experience. Discover how Guard Square provides industry leading security for your Android and iOS apps at www.guardsquare.com foreign.

Maria Varmazes (20:06)

Welcome back. Some wrap up thoughts before we close out today. First up, the ISS crew who came home a bit early for a medical evacuation, did a media debrief yesterday and we didn't learn a whole lot aside from yes, everybody is doing fine and no they're not going to tell you who or what was going on because it is 100% none of our business. And that is fine and good. There was one tidbit that was kind of a neat little extra bit of information for us though. Crew member and NASA astronaut Mike Finke said that the onboard ultrasound machine on the ISS came in super clutch in figuring out the medical situation that they were dealing with. So much so that Finke said that all future spaceflights should have an ultrasound in their kit. Now the ISS crew for years have been using ultrasounds as part of their regular scientific research work and not unlike the ultrasound machines you may have seen at a doctor's office. It just looks like a souped up laptop with a handheld ultrasound wand attached by a cable. A very smart and compact bit of kit that certainly has a ton of utility. Now a second item for your consideration today, my friends, is the official Artemis II flight kit. Specifically the merch that they're bringing with them. Okay, merch is perhaps not technically the right way of thinking of it, as NASA is calling them all mission keepsakes. But stickers, pins, patches, badges, ribbons? Come on. Listen, I'm a nerd who's been to a comic con or 5. I know merch when I see it. All right, There will be 12 Canada Space Agency stickers, six Canada flag patches, one ESA flag, 100 silver Snoopy pins, at least 115 U.S. flags, a one by one swatch of the plane fabric from the Wright Brothers plane, the unflown Apollo 18 flag, and the US flag that was flown on both the very first and very last shuttle missions. And that is just a small sampling, to be honest. You can read the whole list for yourself if you really want, but spoiler alert, it's a lot of pins, patches and stickers. Oh, and the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo leatherback number. Because I guess for NASA, when it comes to sending people to the moon, indeed, this ain't their first rodeo. And that is T minus Brought to you by N2K CyberWire we'd love to know what you think of our podcast. Please don't correct me on my French. I know it's terrible. 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 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 Senior Producer is Alice Carus. Our producer 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 Kilpe is our publisher and I am your host with the bad French, Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

Cybersecurity Announcer (23:46)

T minus. If you only attend one cybersecurity conference this year, make it RSAC 2026. It's happening March 23rd through the 26th in San Francisco. Bringing together the global security community for four days of expert insights, hands on learning and real innovation. I'll say this plainly, I never miss this conference. The ideas and conversations stay with me all year. Join thousands of practitioners and leaders tackling today's toughest challenges and shaping what comes next. Register today@rsaconference.com cyberwire26 I'll see you in San Francisco. Security works best in layers, and when those layers actually work together, that's when things get interesting. NORD layer is a network security platform designed for modern teams. It secures connections, controls access and helps stop threats, all without hardware or long deployment cycles. Now Nordlayer has partnered with CrowdStrike to bring Falcon endpoint protection into the mix, giving small and mid sized businesses a multi layered security approach that's practical to deploy and easy to manage. NORD layer handles secure access and zero trust networking. CrowdStrike Falcon adds endpoint visibility and protection. Together they cover more ground than either could alone without requiring a large IT staff. For business leaders, that means clearer control and easier compliance. For IT teams, IT means granular access policies, faster onboarding and protection that scales. If you're looking for enterprise grade security without enterprise grade complexity, take a look at Nordlayer. Get up to 22% off yearly plans plus an additional 10% with code CYBERWIRE10. There's even a 14 day money back guarantee. Check out nordlayer.com cyberwire daily to learn more.