Alicia Siegel (7:31)

Alice Maria There are five additional links in the show notes for you to read today. TechCrunch has laid out China's dates for their planned planetary missions. Vandenberg Space Force Base has added an advanced Vehicle operations room. The U.S. air Force is reportedly looking at canceling the Space Development Agency's future Transport Layer satellites in favor of tapping SpaceX. Isar Aerospace has postponed their first flight from Norway to no earlier than Saturday, March 29. Fingers crossed for them. And Saxavord Space Force has inked an agreement with the west of Scotland Space Cluster for R&D.

Maria Vermazes (8:07)

That is a lot of additional stories. And where are those links?

Alicia Siegel (8:10)

Again, we add links to all the stories mentioned throughout the show in the Selected Readings section of our Show Notes, which can be found on the podcast platform you listen through or on our website space.n2k.com and click on this episode title 18.

Maria Vermazes (8:26)

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 former White House Principal Deputy National Cyber Director Jake Braun talking about whether space should be designated as critical infrastructure. So check it out while you're heading to a game, spring gardening, or mentally preparing for a space symposium. Because many of us are flying to Colorado in a week, you don't want to miss it.

Alice Carruth (9:13)

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Maria Vermazes (10:04)

It's time for the Space Traffic Report from our partners@nasaspaceflight.com.

Alicia Siegel (10:12)

I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF and this is your weekly Space Traffic report for T minus space let's start off with NASA's Parker Solar Probe and the scorching heat of the Sun. On March 22 at 22:42 UTC, NASA's Parker Solar Probe made its 23rd closest approach to the sun of its entire mission, matching its own record for shortest distance to the sun and speed around our own star. The spacecraft arrived at its current orbit following a Venus flyby executed in November, after which it had its closest approach ever on December 24th of last year. Just like that encounter, this one is the closest yet, and it was also successful. NASA confirmed that the probe phoned back home on Tuesday, March 25, confirming good health. Through these approaches, Parker will be able to gather unprecedented data on the solar corona and solar wind moving back down to Earth. We had a few launches this week, starting with the Falcon 9. Liftoff took place on March 24th at 17:48 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The rocket was carrying out the NROL 69 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. While the mission was classified, things like hazard notices and the performance needed from Falcon 9 give us a clue as to what kind of payload it might be carrying. It appears that for this mission, the NROL 69 payload was a Naval Ocean Surveillance System satellite, which is a type of signals intelligence satellite operated by the US Navy. These satellites often orbit the Earth in orbits ranging between 1000 and 1200 km in altitude and at an approximately 63 degree inclination. Given that orbital inclination, these payloads have traditionally been launched from Vanden, and in fact SpaceX launched one of them from here in 2022 on the NROL 85 mission. However, with Falcon 9's payload performance, it's still possible to launch into these types of orbits from the Cape if the rocket performs an inclination change later in the mission. In fact, due to this peculiar mission profile, many people in Northern Europe were able to observe the dump of propellant from the Falcon 9 second stage after it performed its sea orbit burn following payload deployment. This is a totally common procedure that the Falcon 9's second stage performs after its mission is completed in order to go into a safe state by venting excess propellant, lowering its tank pressure, and powering down its batteries. On other missions, this maneuver often ends up taking place over Australia or over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So it's not something that Europeans would be very used to seeing if you saw it and had no idea what it was. Well, now you know. The first stage for this mission, B1092, was a rookie one flying for only its second time on this mission, it successfully returned to Earth landing back at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 ground pad, just a few miles south of the launch site from the Southern Hemisphere. We also had another ELECTRON launch this week, the fifth overall for this year. The mission, called Finding Hot Wildfires near you, started off on March 26 at 15:30 UTC from Rocket Lab's own spaceport in New Zealand. Electron was carrying eight satellites for Aurora Tech into Sun Synchronous Orbit. These eight satellites are part of a constellation of spacecraft that Aurora Tech is building in orbit to better monitor fires with more frequency to assist with better response times here on the ground. Hence the cheeky name for this mission. The satellites employ a set of thermal infrared cameras to spot the wildfires and changes in the landscape to monitor their growth. And with multiple of these satellites going into orbit, the company hopes to have a nearly continuous observation capability that same day. Just a few minutes later, we had a Cheongjiang 3 BE rocket launching from China. Liftoff took place on March 26 at 15:55 UTC from Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite. The mission was carrying the fourth Tianlian 2 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Tianlian 2 satellites are Chinese communication relay satellites used to support communications between satellites orbiting Earth and ground stations when they're outside of ground station coverage. These satellites are akin to the U.S. tracking Data and Relay Satellite System, or TDRS, which NASA uses for communication with several of its orbital assets like the International Space Station. China uses the Tianlian satellites in the same manner, such as in support of its Tiangong outside of ground station coverage. And to wrap up the week, we had the launch of a Starlink mission from Vandenberg. Liftoff of Falcon 9 occurred on March 26 at 22:11 UTC, carrying a batch of 27 Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit. The first stage for this launch, B1063, was flying for a 24th time, and despite its age, it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship, of Course I Still Love youe. With that batch of satellites, SpaceX has now launched a total of 8,144 Starlink satellites, of which 1,009 have re 6,492 have moved into their operational orbit going into next week. On March 29, we'll have a partial solar eclipse as seen here from Earth. The eclipse should be visible in the northern hemisphere, primarily over northern Europe and western Russia. The northeast of the United States as well as Canada and Greenland will also be able to see the event. This is only a partial solar eclipse, which means we won't have a path of totality, but there is a path of maximum eclipse which will start from the central Atlantic Ocean and should move north across the Earth, passing by Canada, grazing the North Pole and finishing in Russia. If you're in the path and you want to observe it, remember to never look at it directly and use appropriate gear or else you might risk damaging your eyes while trying it's not every day that we can say a rocket launch might happen during a solar eclipse, but this weekend there might be a possibility. Next week Isar Aerospace will try to get its Spectrum rocket off the ground for the very first time. After several delays due to weather, the company may try to launch as soon as March 29th with the three hour launch window opening at 11:30 UTC. If that date and time holds, that'll be right as the eclipse is happening over Norway. And if you don't want to miss this launch, you're in luck because NSF is providing launch livestream production services to Isar, so we'll be covering it as it happens. Our team is on site and ready to support from the land of the Midnight Sun. This weekend we'll also have the launch of a Chungzhong 7 a rocket from the Wencheng space launch site in China. The launch is currently targeted to take place within a 78 minute window that opens on March 29th at 15:57 UTC. Firefly's Alpha Rocket is also waiting on good weather to take off to the skies, but the latest notices indicate the company may be aiming for another try this weekend. The 68 minute launch window for this mission, dubbed Message in a Booster, is set to open on March 30th at 13:37 UTC. Schedules are still fluid since the company hasn't committed to this launch date yet, so don't be surprised if there are further delays. NSF will also be providing Livestream production services to Firefly for this launch, so we'll be covering it on our channel as well. Next week we'll also have a trio of Falcon 9 missions to end the month of March and kick off the month of April. First we'll have a Starlink launch from Florida with the four hour launch window opening on March 30th at 19:16 UTC. After that we'll have another Starlink launch, this time from Vandenberg, with the four hour launch window opening on April 1st at one minute past midnight UTC. Then just a few minutes later, SpaceX will also be launching the From 2 mission, the first crewed flight to fly in a polar orbit around the globe. For this mission, Falcon 9 will be launching southeast from Launch Complex 39A, performing a dogleg around the southeast coast of Florida as it inserts crew dragon into a 90 degree orbital inclination. The window for this mission, set to take place on April 1st, is approximately five hours long. Within that window, there are four available launch opportunities. The first is 147 UTC, the second at 3:20, and the third and fourth at 453 and 626 UTC, respectively. And to wrap up the week, we'll have another launch from China, this time with a Chongjiang 2D rocket. The 37 minute window for that launch opens on April 1st at 3:52 UTC. I'm Alicia Segal for NSF and that's your weekly space traffic Report. Now back to T minus Space.

Maria Vermazes (18:15)

I'll be right back.

Alice Carruth (18:23)

And now a brief message from our sponsor, DropZone AI. Is your sock drowning in alerts? With legitimate threats sitting in queues for hours or even days? The latest sans sock survey report reveals alert fatigue and limited automation are SOC team's greatest barriers. DropZone AI, recognized by Gartner as a cool vendor, directly addresses these challenges through autonomous recursive reasoning investigations, quickly eliminating false positives, enriching context, and enabling analysts to prioritize real incidents faster. Take control of your alerts and investigations with Dropzone AI.

Maria Vermazes (19:07)

Foreign welcome back. In just a few weeks, another Blue Origin flight to Suborbital Space will be lifting off from West Texas, this time with a celebrity studded all women crew aboard. The crew includes Gayle King, who is co host of CBS Mornings, which is a big morning TV show here in the United States. And it's funny, because sending a morning TV show host to space is a major plot point in last season's the morning show on Apple tv where that host was played by Jennifer Aniston, who then gives up her seat to Reese Witherspoon. Anyway, art imitates reality and the other way around. In this case, reality imitates tv. And it's not the first time that that's happened when it comes to Blue Origin space missions either. Yeah, the shat. Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner also went to Suborbital space on a Blue origin flight in 2021. At that time he was 90. Yeah, Skosh older than Captain Kirk zipping around space on the Enterprise. But still, after playing the most iconic space explorer of all time, Shatner got to experience the real deal. Even nearly four years after his adventure this Trekkie gets a little emotional thinking about how beautifully poetic that was. And Sir William of Shatner had some words of advice for his fellow TV star Gayle King as she prepares for her own epic journey to the final frontier. You're on an adventure. You've got to embrace it. Sorry, that was a terrible shadow. Still, it's wise words from someone who's been there and inspired countless others to do the same. And now over to N2K producer Liz Stokes for some Fun Fact Friday.

Alicia Siegel (20:56)

Welcome to Fun Fact Friday, your one stop shop for the quirkiest tidbits of wisdom. I'm your host, Liz Stokes here at M2K Sabelwire. Ever wondered what it takes to break free from Earth's gravity?

Maria Vermazes (21:06)

The answer? Speed.

Alicia Siegel (21:08)

And lots of it. A spacecraft needs to hit a jaw dropping 25,008 miles per hour to escape our planet's pool. That's nearly Mach 33, faster than most of us can even comprehend. So next time you're in a rush.

Maria Vermazes (21:25)

Just remember, escaping gravity takes more than.

Alicia Siegel (21:28)

A good pair of sneakers.

Maria Vermazes (21:30)

See you soon. That's it for T minus for March 28, 2025, brought to you by N2K CyberWire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes@spare.n2k.com we'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insight that keeps 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 spacen2k.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 how@n2k.com N2K's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kielpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful weekend.

Alicia Siegel (23:03)

T minus.

Alice Carruth (23:16)

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