← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
ESA pushes for space, defense, and cybersecurity autonomy.
00:24:11
Europe pushes for defence, space and cybersecurity autonomy. Satlink partners with Rivada. Armada AI and Sophia Space introduce a new platform. And more.
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Foreign you're listening to the N2K space network.
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Foreign Today is September 12, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T/T/20 seconds to Los T Drift. Red Wire Corporation has opened a new facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico and reorbit has expand to the UK. Slingshot Aerospace has been awarded a CBIR Phase 3 contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory for the Space Domain Awareness Exploiting in Space Sensors program. Armada AI and Sofia Space have launched a fully integrated Earth to Space scalable compute infrastructure platform. Satlink is partnering with Rivada Space Networks to provide a network to support Spanish enterprises and defense forces. 1 the European Space Agency's Director General Josef Aschbacher delivered the opening remarks at the General assembly for Defense, Space and Cybersecurity. Our partners at NSF will be bringing us the Space Traffic report after today's headlines, wrapping up the launch news from the last week and taking a look at what's to come over the next seven days. So stay with us for that. Happy Friday everybody. You made it. Let's dive into today's Intel Briefing, shall we? The European Space Agency's Director General, Josef Aschbacher delivered the opening remarks at the General assembly for Defense, Space and Cybersecurity. The European Parliament and the European Commission, in collaboration with esa, organized the assembly to promote dialogue between European and national decision makers and industry representatives. In the context of the unprecedented challenges that the European Union is facing in an increasingly complex geopolitical situation, Josef Aschbacher pushed for a stronger alliance on space.
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And defense, but Today let us be audacious and not shy away from what has been a discrete but clear driving force for space efforts of its technology breakthroughs, of pushing the boundaries of collective will, our security and defence. And why do I say discrete? Because Europe has been shy in coming to terms with the legitimate role of cooperative space which it plays in our security and in our geostrategic independence. And it is now a fact Europe's space and defense autonomy has become one of our continent's foremost priorities, as we have just also heard very clearly from Commissioner Kobelius.
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Aschbacher also warned that Europe is not just trailing behind its counterparts in the United States and China terms of space based intelligence. He said that they're not playing the same game at all, at least not yet. He also pushed for European sovereignty over data collection, referring to Europe's reliance on American space data, particularly with the current conflict in Ukraine. The consensus from the assembly is that Europe will be shifting towards control of its own defense space and cybersecurity assets and it will certainly be interesting to see how that plays out in the coming years. Let's stay in Europe for our next story now as Spanish satellite telecommunications company satlink is partnering with Rivada Space Networks to provide a network to support Spanish enterprises and defense forces. Satlink says it'll harness Rivada's outernet to provide a private data network and a new level of cybersecurity to the enterprise, government and defense sectors. Additionally, satlink will join Rivada's Customer Advisory Board and conduct a series of technical workshops to structure the collaboration and exchan information on the Outernet's capabilities. Arvada says it has now lined up over US$17 billion of business globally for its Outernet. Earlier this year, Rivada Space says it planned to launch the first of its Outernet Constellation satellites in 2026 as a demonstration mission with operational satellite launches starting in 2027 and full global coverage expected by mid-2028. Moving on Armada AI and Sophia Space have launched a fully integrated Earth to Space scalable compute infrastructure platform. The platform connects terrestrial and orbital systems to provide real time AI, autonomous analytics and resilient data orchestration across some of the most remote and mission critical environments on and off the planet. It enables two way communication and control, allowing seamless collaboration between systems that support real time AI processing and and continuous self improvement through adaptive learning. This collaboration combines Armada's Galleon Ground Edge data centers that are powered by Armada Edge platform with SOFIA Space's Tile Orbital Compute modules and Sophia Orbital operating system. Together, the companies say that they create a seamless edge computing network that connects remote locations on Earth with computing resources in space, including in low Earth orbit. Slingshot Aerospace has been awarded a CBER Phase 3 contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory for the Space Domain Awareness Exploiting in Space Sensors program. The contract builds on prior CIBR R and D on AFRL satellite programs like Oracle M. This Phase three contract transitions Slingshot's advanced space based surveillance capabilities from prototype to real world operational use, expanding the nation's ability to track and respond to activity in Earth orbits and the cislunar domain Redwire Corporation has opened a new Rapid Capabilities facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico to advance the development of space based defense Systems. The new 15,000 square foot facility, better known as Firestone Rapid Capabilities Facility, will support a wide range of capabilities for space missile defense and other emerging warfighting domains. The new site will also support work under its $45 million five year cost plus fixed fee contract with AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate to design, develop and test prototype software and hardware for Mission Critical Technologies and Reorbit continues to make headlines, this time with its expansion to the United Kingdom. The Finnish satellite company has opened a subsidiary called Reorbit UK that will be based at the Bristol and Bath Science and if you want to read up more about Reorbit's new move or hear about any of the other stories I've mentioned during Today's episode, well N2K senior producer Alice Cruz joins me now to tell you how.
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Thanks and Happy Friday, Maria. We include links to the original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout the show in the selected reading section of our show Notes. Today we've included four additional stories. DSEI Conference in the UK also covered space and cyber as the invisible frontline in defence Today, Inteleon and Eutelsat have developed a portable military grade ground terminal. Planet has released its first image from the recently launched Pelican 3 satellite and Telecon Serbia has expanded its partnership with SES.
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And also folks, a reminder that those links can be found on our website space.n2k.com just click on the episode title at. Crew Tune in tomorrow for T Deep Space. It's our show for extended interviews, special editions and deep dives with some of the most influential professionals in the space industry. Tomorrow we have Joe Davis, Cybersecurity Research Scientist and Eric Conway, Vice President of Technology at BigBear AI, talking about my two favorite subjects, space and cybersecurity. So definitely check it out while you're traveling to world Space Business Week in Paris. And if you are lucky or if you're like us and missing out, we will have daily updates from our friends at Spacewatch Global on the show next week. Either way, you don't want to miss it. And now a message from McAfee. I'm not a real kid and I'm not a real grandpa. We're deep fakes and we're making it harder to tell what's real online. The good news? McAfee can help. McAfee's Scam Detector automatically identifies text and email scams and even deepfakes. So if you whippersnappers meet one of us, you'll know if they're faking it. They're not making it past us. Get award winning scam detection today. McAfee.com KeepItReal let's hear from our friends over at NASASpaceflight.com now for the weekly Space Traffic Report.
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I'm Ryan Caton for NSF and this is your weekly space Traffic report for T Minus Space. Starting off the week, we had a starLink launch on August 30th. Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:59 UTC, carrying 24 more Starlink V2 mini satellites to add to the constellation. SpaceX used B1082 for this mission, which flew for the 15th time, after which it touched down successfully on the deck of droneship. Of course I Still Love youe. Over in deep space, the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or juice, flew past Venus. But this flyby got a bit more dicey than expected as ESA lost contact with the spacecraft just a few weeks earlier. These flybys require some prec manoeuvring, so not being able to contact the spacecraft was definitely far from ideal. So what happened? Well, on July 16, the spacecraft didn't contact ESA's ground station in Spain at the planned time. After ruling out ground station issues and failing to reach the spacecraft through other antennas, the engineers confirmed the problem was with the spacecraft itself. Juice is programmed to enter survival mode when multiple things go wrong. But that didn't happen this time. In survival mode, the spacecraft spins slowly, beaming a signal at Earth each hour. But Juice wasn't sending any signals at all. So the engineers expected there might be a problem with the medium gain antenna. There were two possible solutions. Wait for the next automatic reset in 14 days or radio some commands in the general direction of the spacecraft and hope the low gain backup antennas would pick it up. With the Venus flyby coming up soon, Waiting wasn't really an option, so the team resorted to blindly sending commands. After 20 hours and six failed attempts, they finally re established contact with Juice. Fortunately, the spacecraft was in good health, and the engineers determined the problem was caused by a software timing bug that meant the signal amplifier wasn't turned on when it was time to communicate with Earth. So Juice tried to phone home, but its signal was just too weak to be detected from the ground. With communications restored, the spacecraft safely flew by Venus on August 31, passing closest to the planet at 05:28 Universal Time. The environment around Venus is much hotter than the cold and dark space around Jupiter that Juice is designed for, so the spacecraft used its main high gain antenna as a shield to protect its sensitive instruments. Unfortunately, that means means we didn't get any pictures of the flyby. But ESA did confirm that the maneuver successfully helped the spacecraft pick up speed. At roughly 6,000 kilograms, juice is one of the heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched, so it needs all the help it can get. Last year it performed a double flyby of Earth and the Moon. And it will need two more flybys of our home planet in September 2026 and January 2029 to accelerate to the required 11km per second. After that, it will head towards its destination, Jupiter, where it's set to arrive in. Next up, we had another Starlink launch. This one took off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida on August 31 at 11:49 Universal and added 28 more Internet satellites to the Constellation. The booster for this mission was B1077, which ended its 23rd flight by successfully touching down on SpaceX's drone ship. Just read the instructions. With another month wrapped, it's time for some numbers. Throughout August, we saw 28 orbital launch attempts, half of which were by SpaceX with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. As usual, SpaceX was followed by China, which attempted eight launches. Unfortunately, one of them didn't reach orbit. The Jute 2E launch in August 15 ended in failure. Going into the month of September, we had the launch of an Israeli Shavit 2 on September 2nd. The rocket lifted off at 19:30 UTC from the Pamalchim Air base, launching a synthetic aperture radar surveillance satellite called ofek19. As usual for the country's launches, this one launched westward over the Mediterranean, lofting its payload into a retrograde low Earth orbit. Now back to California for another StarLink mission. On September 3rd at 3:51 Universal Falcon 9 ignited its engines to deliver 24 Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit. This launch used a fresh booster, B1097, which ended its first flight by touching down on the deck of Droneship. Of Course I Still Love youe. Later that day, we had the 200th orbital launch attempt of the year. And guess what it was A Starlink launch from Florida. At 11:56 UTC, Falcon 9 lifted off from the Cape, lofting 28 Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit. The booster for this flight was B1083, which performed its 14th mission and landed successfully on the deck with a shortfall of grav. Later, on September 3, the International Space Station got a little boost that's not particularly special on its own, as the station regularly gets boosts to maintain its orbit. What was different this time was the spacecraft that boosted the station, a Dragon. The CRS 33 Cargo Dragon, which was launched on August 24, is outfitted with a special boost trunk. This trunk features extra propellant tanks and two Draco engines. Dragon lit these engines on September 3rd at approximately 18:15 UTC, and over the following 5 minutes and 3 seconds, it raised the station's orbit. But wait, didn't Dragon Dr. The station's forward port? Wouldn't that mean it lowers the orbit if it fires from the trunk? Well, yes it would, but the ISS has a trick up its sleeve. In preparation for the manoeuvre, it flipped over 180 degrees to face retrograde, allowing Dragon to fire in the correct direction to raise the orbit. Of course, Dragon isn't the first visiting vehicle to boost the station. Usually a Russian Progress resupply craft gets the job, but in recent years it has also been done by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus, and last year also by another Dragon, though that one used its regular thrusters and didn't have the special trunk. Now, with this Trunk, Dragon has 3 times more reboost capacity compared to Cygnus, and about 1.5 times compared to progress. The CRS33 Dragon is set to stay at the orbital outpost until late December or early January. During that time, it will perform a series of longer burns to maintain the station's altitude. We also had a Chungzhou 3C launch from China. On September 5, the rocket lifted off from the Shichang satellite launch center. No details were announced about the payload at the time of recording. Back in the United States, we had yet another Starlink launch. This mission lifted off on September 5th from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space center and delivered 28 Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit. Booster B1069 flew this mission on its 27th flight, which became the fourth booster to fly this many times. It ended the flight by successfully landing on Just read the instructions. The successful landing also marked SpaceX's 500th successful recovery since the first successful landing on Falcon 9's 20th mission in December 2015. With the five Starlink missions this week, SpaceX landed a total of 1 satellites to the Constellation, bringing the number of Starlink satellites launched to 9,660. Of those, 1,288 have re entered and 7,551 are currently in their operational orbits, closing out the week as Ceres 1 from Galactic Energy launched from China. The rocket lifted off from zhou Chen on September 5, just like the previous launch from China. We don't know anything about the payload at the moment, but more details may be released later, so keep an eye on the next spaceflight app. Next week, Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch three times from California. We'll have a Starlink launch and a mission for the US Space Force's Space Development Agency from Florida. Falcon 9 is set to launch an Indonesian communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. There's also a launch from China on the manifest As a Zheangjiang 6A is expected to fly from the Taiyan Satellite launch center on September 11th. The Progress MS.32 resupply mission is set to lift off from Kazakhstan to prepare for the spacecraft's arrival on the 13th. The Progress MS.30 craft is set to undock from the ISS2 on September 9th. Finally, we'll also have a total lunar eclipse on September 7th as the Moon passes through Earth's shadow. The full eclipse will be visible over most of Asia and parts of Australia and East Africa. If you're in Europe or most of Africa, you might be able to see a partial eclipse during the moonrise, and if you're west of the Pacific, you might catch it during moonset. Our American viewers will unfortunately have to miss out, as this lunar eclipse won't be visible from that continent. You did get a total solar eclipse last year, though. Anyways, I've been Ryan Cayton 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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Welcome back. Once in a while Earth Observation Satellites Shadow as Satellite observing satellites in late August, a Maxar Worldview Legion was taken a high res photo of the Dingxian airbase in Western China for reasons and who just so happened to photobomb that shot, but a SpaceX Starlink streaking across the shot. It's actually quite beautiful in a way, as the starlink shows up a few times in that shot, but in a few different colors. That is some fun digital artifacting going on there given both satellites were at orbital velocities AKA very fast and imaging systems themselves can only work so fast. Kind of like when a person moves while you're taking a photo on panoramic mode and it results in fun streaks and misshapes. Imagine that, but way, way, way way way way faster. Pretty picture though. Incidents like this are, we should note, extraordinarily rare as Earth orbit is very big and satellites are very small. But still, don't be surprised to hear more of these kinds of stories in the future as the number of smallsats in LEO like Starlink continue to mushroom. And speaking of fun things seen in the sky, if you are in North America this Sunday evening, that would be September 14, especially on the eastern half of North America, you have a very good chance of seeing both orbiting space stations in the night sky at the same time. If you catch both the ISS and Tiangong, just think that you will be seeing every human in space all at the same time. So definitely give them a wave. And that is T minus. Brought to you by N2K CyberWire what do you think about T minus Space Daily? We'd love to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. The link is in the show notes and thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. 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 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 Karina Ruth 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 Kilby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.
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