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Today is December 17th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T minus T minus 20 seconds at Los. The planned launch of Japan's Michibiki 5 navigation satellite was scrubbed at the last minute. 4 China's new stereo mapping satellite was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch center in Shaanxi province. India's Diganthara Industries has raised $50 million in a funding round to develop sovereign space surveillance capabilities. An ESA contract awarded to Aryan group in 2021 for the development of an Ariane six kick stage will reportedly be adapted to cover its evolution into an orbital transfer vehicle. An Ariane 6 rocket launched two Galileo satellites from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. Happy Wednesday everybody. Thank you for joining me today. We have a truly global intelligence briefing for you today, spanning news from China, across Asia and Europe. So let's dive in, shall we? First up, an Ariane 6 rocket launched two Galileo satellites from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana in the early hours of this morning. The satellites, designated Sat33 and Sat34 sat separated from the launcher after a flight of just under four hours. The European Space Agency declared the flight successful after acquisition of signal and confirmation that both satellites are healthy with their solar arrays deployed, and today marked the first launch of a Galileo spacecraft on a European rocket and the fifth launch of the Ariane 6 heavy lift launcher. Two additional launches are planned for the near future, each each carrying two Galileo first generation satellites. The Sat 33 and Sat 34 satellites will now undergo early operations and in orbit testing in about three months with the addition of the new satellites, the Galileo Constellation will have 29 active satellites ensuring even greater coverage and reliability and staying with Ariane 6. European spaceflight is reporting that a contract awarded to ariane Group in 2021 for the development of an AR stage will be adapted to cover its evolution into an orbital transfer vehicle. Esa awarded Ariane Group's German subsidiary the 90 million euro contract in July 2021 to develop the Asterisk Kickstage as part of the Ariane 6 Competitiveness Improvement Program. The optional kickstage was intended to enhance the Ariane 6 launch system's flexibility by enabling deployment of payloads into multiple orbits or or direct injection into geostationary orbit. At the time the initial contract was awarded, the first Ariane 6 flight with an asterisk kick stage was expected to take place in 2024 and obviously that did not happen and it was all pushed until 2027. However, following decisions made at the agency's Ministerial Council meeting in Bremen last month, the approach has changed to move directly to the development of an orbital Transfer Vehicle, or otv. Under the new timeline, a proto flight mode of the OTV is expected to be ready for ground qualification by the end of 2028, with an inaugural flight following in 2029. India's Digantara Industries has raised $50 million in a funding round to develop sovereign space surveillance capabilities. The Bengaluru based startup did not disclose its valuation after the funding round. Digantara builds hardware, software and artificial intelligence driven analytics for governments and defense agencies across India, the United States, the uk, Singapore, Australia and Japan. The company plans to expand into Europe by mid-2026. It also operates a commercial space surveillance Satellite launched in January 2025 and is developing homegrown systems with all hardware designed and manufactured in Bengaluru. Digantara says that the investment will help it expand from tracking space debris and satellites to becoming a full stack space surveillance and intelligence company. And let's head on over to China for our next story. A new stereo mapping satellite was launched on Tuesday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch center in North China's Shaanxi province. The Zhiyuan 304 satellite lifted off on a Long March 4B rocket at 11:17am Beijing time. Chinese media is reporting that the rocket sent the satellite into preset orbit and that it will form a satellite constellation with the in orbit G1302 and 03 satellites for observation and the planned launch of Japan's Michibiki 5 navigation satellite was scrubbed at the last minute. Earlier today, an H3 rocket was scheduled to launch the Michibiki 5 spacecraft from Tanegashima Space center in the morning hours of December 17th in Japan. It was carrying a new unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft called the HTV X1. It's believed that the scrub was due to a ground systems issue which triggered an abort in the final minute of the countdown. A new target date has not been announced as of the time of this recording, And that wraps up today's Intel Briefing. To learn more about the stories mentioned throughout this episode, make sure to head to the selected Reading section of our Show Notes to find links to the original sources of all of the stories that I've mentioned for you today. Hey crew, A lot of people are listening to podcasts through YouTube nowadays and if that's the way you would prefer to listen to this show, well good news everyone. T minus Space Daily is indeed on YouTube. YouTube. We post our episodes there along with video clips from some of our interviews and events that we go to throughout the year. So if you are dual screening at work and keep the YouTube player going all day while you are heads down, listen, I get it. I'm not judging at N2K Cyber is our company's YouTube channel and you will find the T Minus Space Daily playlist on there along with all of the other shows that we make here at N2K. Again, find us on YouTube at N2K Cyber and thanks. We'll be right back with a NASA research opportunity for college and university students. So good, so good, so good Score Holiday gifts.