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T A dot com cyber today is October 22nd, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T minus T minus 20 seconds. The Space Launch System rocket being stacked for the Artemis 2 mission has its final piece. Link Global and Omnispace have announced plans to merge to deliver a direct to device connectivity solution. The European Space Agency is adding a new Numerical Health Index to its yearly Space Environment Report. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Texas A and M University have secured a $1 million grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for space domain awareness. 1 Vantor has been awarded a contract to support the US Space Force in tracking high interest objects that pass through blind spots in Space, and the Secure Foundation's 7th Summit for Space Sustainability is being held in Paris this week. Our colleague at Spacewatch Global, Korsten Kreening, will be sharing his insights from the conference with us this week, so do stick around for more on that after today's headlines. It is Wednesday, friends. Thank you for joining me today. Let's take a look at our intel briefing, shall we? First up, Vantor, formerly known as Maxar Intelligence, has been awarded a contract to support the US Space Force in tracking high interest objects that pass through blind spots in space. In other words, places that are not visible to ground sensor networks. Now, Vantor is an awardee of the Office of Space Commerce's commercial COLA Gap Pathfinder program and the COLA Gap refers to the period right after a satellite launch when space traffic coordination is hampered by limited or imprecise tracking data and during that time, newly deployed satellites may not have reliable positional information, creating a spike in collision risk and posing coordination challenges for satellite operators, launch providers and traffic management authorities. Vantor's non Earth imagery and space domain Awareness insights will deliver visual based intelligence to help minimize collision risk. And under the new contract, which will support Space Force's Joint Commercial Operations Program, Vantor will use its high resolution imagery of space objects to deliver key information about an object's position and trajectory. The observations will allow the Space Force to maintain persistent custody of the high interest objects and will be particularly useful in situations where where an object has the potential to change orbit. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, better known by many as RPI, and Texas A&M University have secured a $1 million grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The grant will support the development of a system to track and monitor resident space objects, including spacecraft, satellites and debris moving through cislunar space and the initiative is called RCAT C, which stands for Reconfigurable Constellations for Adaptive Tracking in Cislunar Space. The researchers plan to develop intelligent networks of sensor satellites that can be reconfigured to perform resilient tracking of objects as they maneuver through the cislunar environment. The system addresses critical safety and security needs as cislunar space becomes increasingly congested and contested. The research will also advance fundamental knowledge in orbital dynamics and autonomous space systems, with implications for mission planning, collision avoidance, and safe coordination of a growing cislunar economy. And of course, it is not just the United States that's concerned about space domain awareness. The European Space Agency is adding a new health index to its yearly space Environment report that summarizes in one number the status of our space environment over time. ESA says that the numeric report will be similar to how climate scientists use temperature as a key indicator of global warming. The Space Environment Health Index will provide a single score that reflects how healthy or how stressed the orbital environment is and what the consequences will be in a 200 year time period. ESA hopes that it'll provide a useful impression of the space environment's health that speeds up high level conversations. And I have a quick update now on a story that we covered earlier this week. On Monday's show we reported on an incident where something pierced the windscreen of a United Airlines aircraft and that was all blamed on possible space debris. Well, a company called Windborne Systems has come forward and said that the object that the plane struck is likely to be part of their weather balloon. The NTSB and the FAA have been informed about Windborne's suspicions for their investigation. Next up, Link Global and Omnispace have announced plans to merge to deliver a direct to device connectivity solution, bridging the gap between today's satellite and terrestrial networks. Ram Viswanathan, President and CEO of Omni Space, added a statement to the press release that says by combining OmniSpace's spectrum portfolio with Lynx Innovative Technology, we are creating a powerful platform for sc cost effective global D2D that will serve the immediate connectivity needs of customers and has the spectrum to enhance capacity over time. And D2D as a refresher is direct to device. Now. SES is a current investor in both companies and it will deepen its partnership profile following the merger, providing access to its multi orbit network and globally deployed ground infrastructure. SES says it'll also support the engineering, operations and regulatory needs of the combined entity. And the transaction between Link Global and OmniSpace is expected to close late this year or early next year, subject of course to customary approvals and closing conditions. And acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy shared this on social media we are one step closer to mission complete. The Space Launch System rocket being stacked for the Artemis 2 mission has its final piece integrity. The Orion spacecraft that will fly NASA's Artemis II crew around the moon and as early as February 2026 has been hoisted atop the SLS, completing the Rocket's assembly ahead of launch. This is a major milestone for the mission, which has been marked as a priority and exempt from the ongoing US Government shut and all that wraps up today's intelligence briefing. We will have more on space sustainability from the Secure World Foundation Summit in Paris. But before we get to that, N2K senior producer Alice Carruth joins us now for a look at more stories that are making headlines today around the world. What do you have for us today.