Goodnight Moon.

Summary

T-Minus Space Daily: "Goodnight Moon" – Episode Summary
Release Date: June 6, 2025
Host: Maria Varmazas
Source: N2K Networks

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1. Ispace’s Resilience Lunar Lander Mission Failure

Maria Varmazas opens the episode by delivering a somber update on Ispace's second lunar mission, the Mission 2 SMBC X Hakuto Our Venture Moon. After a successful launch on January 15, the mission aimed to land the Resilience Lunar Lander in Mare Frigoris. However, the mission ended in disappointment when communication was lost just 90 seconds before touchdown.

Key Points:

• Telemetry Loss: At [04:15], Maria recounts the tense moment when Ispace’s Mission Control lost contact, prompting the mission's premature end.
• Official Statement: Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of Ispace, stated at [06:10], “Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data that we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause.”
• Mission Impact: The failure adds another crater to the Moon's surface and marks the second unsuccessful attempt by Ispace to achieve a soft lunar landing.
• Future Plans: Ispace is committed to investigating the root cause, which they believe differs from the previous mission’s issues, and aims to incorporate these learnings into future projects.

2. US Political Tensions: Trump vs. Elon Musk

A significant portion of the episode discusses the escalating tensions between former President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, highlighted through a series of social media exchanges.

Key Points:

• Threat of Subsidy Cancellation: At [05:30], Maria reports, “Donald Trump threatens to cancel subsidies and contracts with Elon Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Starlink.”
• Retaliatory Threats: In response, Musk threatened to decommission the Dragon capsule, potentially jeopardizing the US's ability to transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station.
• Current Status: While Musk appears to have backtracked on his initial threat, the situation remains precarious, with potential implications for future US-space collaborations.

3. Dhruva Space’s Strategic Partnership with SODERN Aryan Group

Shifting focus to international collaborations, Dhruva Space announced a strategic partnership with France-based SODERN Aryan Group, a leader in optical and inertial instrumentation for space and defense.

Key Points:

• Project Details: Under Dhruva Space's Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads (LEAP) initiative, they will deploy the next-generation Horus Star Tracker on a hosted payload mission.
• Launch Schedule: The Horus payload will be integrated onto Dhruva Space's P30 nanosatellite platform, with a planned launch in 2026.
• Significance: This partnership enhances Dhruva Space’s capabilities in providing advanced instrumentation for space missions, fostering international cooperation in space technology.

4. Dawn Aerospace’s Mark 2 Aurora Spaceplane Approval

Dawn Aerospace secured critical regulatory approval to advance their spaceplane project, marking a significant milestone in commercial aerospace.

Key Points:

• Regulatory Approval: At [06:50], Maria shares, “Dawn Aerospace has received the ITS updated Part 102 license from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, authorizing rocket-powered flight testing and commercial operations of the Mark 2 Aurora spaceplane.”
• Commercial Operations: The Aurora Suborbital spacecraft is now available for sale at the Tawaki National Aerospace Center.
• Company’s Vision: Emphasizing collaboration with regulators, Dawn Aerospace aims to ensure safe, legal, and rapid development of cutting-edge aerospace technologies.

5. Maritime Launch Services’ Funding Approval in Nova Scotia

Canada's Maritime Launch Services achieved a significant financial boost to enhance its space infrastructure.

Key Points:

• Funding Details: At [07:50], Maria states, “Maritime Launch Services has obtained approval for approximately $10.5 million under the Capital Investment Tax Credit (CITC) from the Province of Nova Scotia.”
• Project Impact: The funding will support specialized commercial space infrastructure at Spaceport Nova Scotia, contributing to Canada's sovereign space capabilities.
• Total Investment: To date, Spaceport Nova Scotia has received about $30.7 million in CITC funding for qualified infrastructure projects.

6. Additional Updates from Alice Cruz

N2K’s senior producer, Alice Cruz, provides updates on other noteworthy space developments.

Key Points:

• Selected Readings: At [07:19], Alice mentions two new links in the Selected Readings section:
  • An update on Nerix laser communication products.
  • Information on RTX and Norfolk Grumman Rocket Motor Testing.
• Accessing Information: Maria adds at [07:35] that these links are available on the podcast platform and the N2K website under today's episode title.

7. Upcoming Shows and Events

Maria previews upcoming content and events, ensuring listeners stay informed about future programming.

Key Points:

• T-Minus Deep Space: Scheduled for the next day, featuring extended interviews and special editions. For example, Dr. Lucy Lowe will discuss science experiments for the Axiom 4 crew heading to the ISS.
• International Rocket Engineering Competition: Taking place in Midland, Texas, on June 7-11, 2025. Alice Cruz will provide live updates from the event.

8. Space Traffic Report Highlights

Presented by Alicia Segal from NASA Spaceflight (NSF), the weekly space traffic report covers recent and upcoming launches.

Key Points:

• Blue Origin’s New Shepard Launch: On May 31, Blue Origin launched its 32nd New Shepard mission with six passengers, successfully returning both the capsule and booster. (Timestamp: [10:05])
• SpaceX’s Record Month: In May, SpaceX launched 16 Falcon 9 missions, including the notable Starship launch, matching their monthly launch record. The latest Falcon 9 mission on June 4 marked either the 500th Falcon family launch (including Falcon 1 and Falcon Heavy) or the 500th orbital launch, depending on counting conventions.
• Rocket Lab’s Electron Mission: On June 2, Rocket Lab launched the Dream Ahead mission from New Zealand, deploying Blacksky’s second-generation commercial Earth observation satellites.
• China’s Changzheng 6A Launch: On June 5, China launched a batch of Guo Wang Internet satellites via the Changzheng 6A rocket, contributing to their own satellite internet constellation.

Notable Quotes:

• Alicia Segal highlights the milestone: “Depending on how you count launches, either this Starlink launch from Vandenberg or the previous one from Florida also represented the 500th launch of the Falcon family of rockets.” (Timestamp: [11:20])
• Commenting on the Ispace mission: “Resilience still managed to tick off eight out of its 10 milestones, which is great. Hopefully, the next attempt will touch down a bit softer.” (Timestamp: [12:45])

9. Indian Space Program Developments

Maria Varmazas concludes the episode with positive news from India's burgeoning space sector.

Key Points:

• First Indian on ISS: Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force is set to join the ISS as part of the AX4 crew, marking him as the second Indian in space and the first to visit the ISS.
• Academic Partnership with NASA: Amity University Chhattisgarh partners with NASA to establish a NASA Aeronet atmospheric monitoring station, joining over 600 stations globally.
• International Rocket Engineering Competition: Four Indian teams have been accepted to compete in the event in Midland, Texas, showcasing India’s growing expertise in rocket engineering.
• Cultural Note: The episode also acknowledges the celebrations of Eid Al-Adha, adding a cultural touch to the global space community.

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Conclusion

Maria Varmazas wraps up the episode by directing listeners to additional resources and encouraging feedback. She highlights the integral role of N2K CyberWire in providing intelligence to industry leaders and invites listeners to share ratings and reviews.

Key Points:

• Feedback Invitation: “Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry.”
• Team Acknowledgment: Credits the production team, including senior producer Alice Carruthers, producer Liz Stokes, mixers Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester, music by Elliot Peltzman, executive producer Jennifer Ibin, and publisher Peter Kilby.

Closing Remarks: Maria signs off with gratitude, reinforcing the podcast’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge space intelligence.

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Notable Exclusions:
The summary intentionally omits promotional segments unrelated to space intelligence, including messages from WhatsApp, GMC Sierra, Delete Me, and Spy Cloud Identity, ensuring focus remains on pertinent content.

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Listen to the full episode here.

Transcript

[Maria Varmazas]

You're listening to the N2K space network.

[WhatsApp Representative]

On WhatsApp. No one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast, your personal messages stay between you, your friends and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Maria Varmazas]

Today is June 6, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T minus.

[Unknown]

T minus 20 seconds.

[Maria Varmazas]

Los Speed Reservoir Canada's Maritime Launch Services has obtained approval from the Province of Nova Scotia for approximately $10.5 million. Under the capital Investment Tax credit, Dawn Aerospace receives authorization to conduct rocket powered flight testing and commercial operation of the Mark 2 Aurora space plane at Tawaki National Aerospace center in New Zealand. Durva Space has announced a strategic partnership with France based sodern Aryan group. U.S. president Trump threatens to cancel subsidies and contracts with Elon Musk's companies and Musk threatens to decommission the Dragon capsule. In retaliation, I Space lost communication with its Resilience Lunar Lander and was forced to conclude its mission. Join us in the second part of today's show for the weekly space traffic report from our [e-mail] they will be rounding up the weekly space launch news from the last seven days and taking a look at what's on the schedule for the next week. Happy Friday everybody. We are kicking off with an Update to I Space's Mission 2 SMBC X Hakuto Our Venture Moon at the time of publishing yesterday, you may remember, we were none the wiser about the status of the Resilience lander. We were glued to the screen watching the landing attempt yesterday when, shortly before touchdown, ispace's Mission Control center or mcc, lost contact with the lunar probe. The Japanese company was forced to end the livestream, promising an update when they had news of its progress, and that news came some hours later and it wasn't what the team wanted to hear. Ispace shared as of 8:00am in Japan on June 6, 2025, mission controllers have determined that it is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored and and therefore completing Success nine is not achievable. It has been decided to conclude the mission and honestly, our hearts broke for them. Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of Ispace, shared this statement Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data that we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause. We will strive to restore trust by providing a report of the findings to our shareholders, Payload customers, Hakuto, our partners, government officials, and all supporters of Ispace and we here at T Minus wish them all the very best of luck. And while Ispace was dealing with all of that, social media was blowing up. With the back and forth social media posts between the US president and SpaceX's founder, it was like watching a game of tennis with insults batting back and forth over the Internet. And this is not the type of story we would normally cover on TV Minus but I promise you there's a good reason for it. Today, the rift between Donald Trump and Elon Musk over the proposed US Budget played out on Truth and X, with Donald Trump threatening to cancel subsidies and contracts with Elon Musk's companies, which include, of course, SpaceX and Starlink, and Elon Musk threatening to decommission the Dragon capsule in response. The decommissioning of the Dragon, by the way, could pose a serious threat to the United States ability to bring astronauts and cargo back and forth between the International Space Station and Earth. Thankfully, it seems that Musk has backtracked on his threat, but we will see how this plays out in the coming weeks. Over to India now and Dhruva Space has announced a strategic partnership with France based Sodern Arian Group. So Darren is a global leader in optical and inertial instrumentation for space and defense sectors, and under Dhruva Space's flagship Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Payloads initiative, also known as leap. So Darin will deploy its next generation Horus Star Tracker on a Duva Space hosted payload mission. The Horus payload will be integrated onto Durva Space's P30 nanosatellite platform, scheduled for launch in 2026. Dawn Aerospace has shared on social media that it now has ITS updated Part 102 license from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand. The CAA is now authorizing rocket powered flight, testing and commercial operation of the Mark 2 Aurora spaceplane. And at Tawaki National Aerospace center, dawn recently started sales of its Aurora Suborbital spacecraft and the company says that getting airborne is as much about the hardware as the paperwork, working hand in hand with regulators to develop frameworks that allow cutting edge aerospace innovation to thrive safely, legally and at pace. And we're sure we'll be seeing more of the Aurora in action in the near future. And we're finishing up with the top five stories today with an update from Canada. Maritime Launch Services has obtained approval from the Province of Nova Scotia for approximately $10.5 million under the Capital Investment Tax Credit, or CITC. They say that the approval will fund specialized commercial space infrastructure and enhance Canada's sovereign space capabilities. The approval builds upon prior support from the province under the CITC program, and approximately $30.7 million in CITC funding has been authorized for qualified infrastructure projects at Spaceport Nova Scotia to date. Congratulations to them. And that concludes Today's intel briefing. N2K senior producer Alice Cruz joins us now to share some of the other stories that we are keeping an eye on.

[Alice Cruz]

Alice hi Maria. We've added two additional links today in the Selected Readings section of our show. Notes 1 is an update on my Nerix laser communication products and the other is on an RTX and Norfolk Grumman Rocket Motor Testing and where else can.

[Maria Varmazas]

We find those links?

[Alice Cruz]

Links to all the original sources of all the stories we mentioned throughout the show should be available on your podcast platform and on our website, space.n2k.com just click on today's episode title.

[Maria Varmazas]

Hey T Minus Crew. Tune in tomorrow for T Minus 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 Dr. Lucy Lowe talking about the science experiments joining the Axiom 4 crew that's headed to the International Space Station next week. Check it out while you are traveling to Midland, Texas for the 2025 International Rocket Engineering Competition. Like Alice will be along with thousands of other rocket engineering students from around the globe. She'll be joining the live stream of that event from next Wednesday and will be bringing us regular updates on this show next week. You don't want to miss it.

[Dave]

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[Maria Varmazas]

We're handing over to our [e-mail] right now who have the latest space traffic report for us.

[Alicia Segal]

I'm Alicia Segal for nsf, and this is your weekly space traffic report for T Minus Space. Kicking off the week, we had the 32nd launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. And this one, just like the previous, had six passengers on board. Liftoff took place on May 31st at 13:39 UTC from launch site 1 at Blue's Own spaceport in West Texas. On board were Paul Jarris, Jesse Williams, Amy Medina, Jorge, Dr. Gretchen Green, Jaime Alleman, and Mark Rocket. And yes, his last name is actually Rocket. That's not a joke. For this flight, Blue was flying the older new Shepard capsule, RSS First Step, which made its 13th flight. The new Shepard booster was Tail 4, which flew its 14th flight. And both capsule and booster made it back safely to Earth from Texas. We now go to California, where a Falcon 9 took off on May 31 at 20:10 UTC, carrying a batch of Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit. The first stage for this mission was B1071, flying for the 25th time, becoming the third booster to fly that many times. It successfully returned to Earth, landing on SpaceX's drone ship, of Course I Still Love youe. And that was the 28th and last orbital launch of the month of May. As usual, SpaceX continues to be the most active launch provider, putting the United States at the top of the list of most launches worldwide. The company launched 16 Falcon 9 missions in May, matching the record for the most Falcon 9 launches in a calendar month. And that's on top of the Starship launch that took place in May as well. And starting off the month of June, we had the launch of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from New Zealand, carrying out the full Dream Ahead mission. The mission started on June 2nd at 23:57 UTC and carried the second Black sky third generation satellite into low Earth orbit. These satellites are commercial Earth observation satellites built by Blacksky. The third generation of satellites have a higher resolution imaging capability and are able to image in greater wavelengths than the previous generation. Not long after Electron, we had another Starlink launch, but this time from Florida. That launch took place on June 3rd at 4:43 UTC carrying a mixed batch of Starlink V2 Mini and direct to cell satellites into orbit. The first stage for this mission was a veteran one flying for its 21st time, and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship. Just read the instructions. And in another quick turnaround of assets at Vandenberg, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket carrying another batch of Starlink V2 mini satellites. Liftoff took place on June 4th at 23:40 UTC. And in case you forgot, June 4th was Falcon 9's birthday. It was on June 4th, 2010 that Falcon 9 first took off to the skies. And here we are 15 years later. Now, depending on how you count launches, either this Starlink launch from Vandenberg or the previous one from Florida also represented the 500th launch of the Falcon family of rockets, including Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. The discrepancy is in Falcon 9's one suborbital launch, the crew Dragon in flight abort test back in 2020. So if you're only counting orbital launches, then the Vandenberg StarLink was the 500th launch. But if you count the suborbital one, then it was the previous one. Everyone loves numbers, am I right? Of those 500 launches, 484 were Falcon 9 launches. So in a few weeks, we will likely have the 500th launch of Falcon 9, which is also really impressive to think about. And if you like even more stats, the booster flown on this starLink mission was B1063 and it flew for its 26th time, making it only the second booster to reach that milestone. It also made it back to the deck of Of Course I Still Love youe and we may see it fly again really soon. Wait, what? You want even more numbers? All right, well, with the Starlink launches Of this week, SpaceX has now launched a total of 8,851 Starlink satellites since the first Starlink launch, of which 1,158 have now re entered and 6,715 have moved into their operational orbit. For the past six months, we've been following the second Hakuto R mission from Japanese company Ispace on its journey to the moon. And while we finally saw the culmination of that story this week, it unfortunately did not end the way that we hoped. At this point, it seems likely that the lander added another crater to the moon's surface. So what happened? Well, let's start from the beginning. The Hakuto R lander was launched towards the moon on January 15, together with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander. Blue Ghost touched down on the lunar surface in early March. But Hakuto R went the long way round on a much longer but more fuel efficient route. Trading propellant for time now. This wasn't Ispace's first attempt at landing on the moon. The first Hacudo R mission crashed into the lunar surface in April of 2023. It was later revealed that the lander's computer misinterpreted its sensor data and it tried to touch down 5 km above the lunar surface. It hovered until it ran out of propellant and then plummeted to its demise. With this second mission, Ispace hoped to correct the mistakes and even named the new lander Resilience. Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be. After a successful launch and journey towards the moon, Resilience prepared to touch down in mare fragoras on June 5th. And initially all seemed to go well. But just 90 seconds before expected touchdown, telemetry was lost. Now, based on what we the seconds before, it appeared to be descending much faster than it should have been. And the faces of the people in mission Control gave away more than any piece of telemetry ever could. For everyone at Ispace, we feel you landing on the Moon is no easy feat, but Resilience still managed to tick off eight out of its 10 milestones, which is great. Hopefully the next attempt will touch down a bit softer. Ispace later confirmed in a press briefing that Resilience did not successfully touch down on the lunar surface, at least not softly, and that the lander sent its last bit of telemetry at 190 meters above the surface. The company is now investigating the root cause, but they believe it's a different issue than what caused the failure of the first mission. They found that the altitude measurements from the laser rangefinder were delayed and that the lander did not decelerate enough as a result. The company wants to incorporate learnings from this mission into their next vehicles. And to wrap up the week, we had the launch of a Changzheng 6A from China on June 5 at 20:45 UTC. The rocket was carrying a batch of Guo Wang Internet satellites into low earth orbit. These satellites are part of China's own Starlink like Satel Satellite Internet Constellation created and developed by Kasec, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. This is now the fourth operational launch for the Constellation and brings the total number of these satellites launched to over 30. Going into next week, we'll see a lot more action in space with a number of Falcon 9 launches scheduled. Some of them will be StarLink launches, but two of them will be carrying customer payloads. One is planned to launch the SXM10 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit for Sirius XM, while the other is slated to launch Axiom's fourth human space spaceflight to the International Space Station. That launch, currently planned for June 10th at 12:22 UTC, will feature the fifth and final Crew Dragon capsule to be manufactured by SpaceX from now on, if they still launch Dragon after all of the drama on social media, SpaceX will just be reusing the already existing capsules until the spacecraft is retired next week. Rocket Lab is also planning another electron launch and China may pop into the schedule as well. United Launch alliance is also working towards another potential launch of Atlas V with Kuiper satellites on board at the end of next week. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF and that's your weekly space traffic Report. Now back to T minus Space.

[Maria Varmazas]

We'll be right back.

[Unknown]

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[Maria Varmazas]

Welcome back. There's a lot of positive space news coming out of India this week. They are ramping up for Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force's launch to the ISS. He's among a four person AX4 crew traveling no earlier than Tuesday. Shukla will be only the second Indian ever to travel to space and the first to visit the International Space Station. Also in the news is Amity University Chhattisgarh in Raipur, which has become the first academic institution in the state to partner with NASA to establish a NASA Aeronet atmospheric monitoring station on its campus. The Aeronet, which stands for Aerosol Robotic Network, is part of over 600 stations across more than 80 countries. This also makes Amity University Chhattisgarh the second Amity campus in India after Amity University Haryana in Gurugram to join this international network. And finally, four teams from India were accepted to compete in the International Rocket Engineering Competition in Midland, Texas next week. Those teams should be arriving this weekend in preparation for registration day on Monday, conference day on Tuesday and then launch days Wednesday through Saturday in West Texas. And a little reminder, we will be catching up with them and all the other teams competing in the competition next week. So go and check out more about that [e-mail] and I'm sure that those that are marking Eid Al Adha have a lot to celebrate this week. And that's it. Update for T minus for June 6, 2025 brought to you by N2K CyberWire for additional resources from today's report, check out our show [e-mail] we'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like this 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're privileged 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 makes it easy for companies to optimize your biggest investment your people. We make you smarter about your teams while making your teams smarter. Learn [e-mail] N2K Senior Producer is Alice Carruthers. 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 Kilby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.

[Alicia Segal]

T minus.

[Dave]

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