← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
NASA launches an infrastructure modernization effort.
00:24:53
NASA to demolish old facilities. Goddard Space Flight Center Library is closing. NASA selects proposals for the Habitable Worlds Observatory. And more.
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You're listening to the N2K space network.
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Today is January 6th, 2026. I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T minus T minus 20 seconds at Los. Redwire's European wing has successfully completed payload integrations for the European Space Agency's Cindo 3 satellite. The Spainsat NG2 communications satellite was apparently struck by a space particle as it was en route to its operational orbit. NASA has selected industry proposals to advance technologies for the agency's Habitable Worlds observatory concept. The library at Goddard Space Flight center in Maryland is closing after a number of disruptions and reductions by the Trump administration. NASA's Dyn test stand and the propulsion and structural test facility known as the T Tower at the Marshall Space Flight center in Huntsville, Alabama are due to be demolished. Happy Tuesday everybody. We will be catching up with Greg Gillinger later in the show today to find out the latest news on what's going on with Chinese spacecraft in orbit. He always has fascinating insights to share with us all, so make sure to stick around to find out more after today's intelligence briefing. Let's get into it. We ended 2025 optimistic, should I say, for the new leadership at the U.S. space Agency. And NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has hit the ground running, starting with updating old facilities. He's looking to demolish several testing facilities in Alabama as as this Saturday, the agency plans to demolish the dynamic test stand and the propulsion and structural test facility known as the T Tower at the Marshall Space Flight center in Huntsville, Alabama. Isaacman told Fox News Digital that NASA is embarking on an exciting infrastructure modernization effort to prepare for the future of exploration. The first phase will make way for new facilities by retiring outdated ones, enabling investments in the capabilities that are needed to deliver on our world changing mission of science and discovery. And funding for those updated facilities at the Marshall Space Flight center come from the One Big Beautiful Bill act, which was signed into law just last July. NASA is looking to use the funding to bolster its infrastructure, which will include more projects beyond the Alabama location and staying with NASA. For our next story, the reorganization at NASA does include the closure of some facilities that have not been met with positive reception. For example, the library at Goddard Space Flight center in Maryland is closing after a number of disruptions and reductions by the Trump administration. Staff members say the closure is degrading NASA's mission. The facility houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals, many of them not digitized or available anywhere. El A NASA spokesman said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days to decide what to do with them. And we should note that holdings from the library at the Goddard Space Flight center include unique documents from the early 20th century through to the Soviet space race and are expected to either be warehoused or thrown out. Shutting down the facilities is said to save the space agency $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance. And for our final NASA story for today, which thankfully is a little more positive, the space agency has selected industry proposals to advance technologies for the agency's Habitable Worlds Observatory concept. This will be the first mission that would directly image Earth like planets around stars that are like our sun and study the chemical composition of their atmospheres for signs of life. The Habitable Worlds Observatory Space Telescope also aims to enable wide ranging studies of our universe and support future human exploration of Mars, our solar system and beyond. To achieve its science goals, the Habitable Worlds Observatory is looking for a stable optical system that moves no more than the width of an atom while it conducts observations. The mission would also require a coronagraph to block the light of a star to better see its orbiting planets, but this one needs to be thousands of times more capable than of any current space coronagraph built. The Habitable Worlds Observatory is also aiming to be designed to allow servicing in space, to extend its lifetime and bolster its science over time. To further the readiness of these technologies, NASA has selected proposals for three year fixed price contracts from Astroscale US, BAE Systems, Space and Mission Systems, Bucec Corporation, L3 Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop, Grimmon and Zcoat Co. Let's head on over to Europe now to wrap up the final two Stories for today's intel briefing. Unfortunately, it's not good news for the SpainSat NG2 communications satellite, which was apparently struck by a space particle as it was en route to its operational orbit. A space particle, in this case meaning something too small to definitively identify as debris or otherwise. In any case, Spain's SpainSEtNG program is intended to provide secure communications for the country's armed forces and government agencies. It is best backed by the Spanish government, which has invested more than 2 billion euros in the construction, launch and operation of two satellites, which are expected to have an operational lifespan of 15 years. The Indra Group, which has majority ownership of the satellite, is assessing the extent of the damage. They say that they're implementing a contingency plan to ensure continuity of services for Spain's Ministry of Defense and Redwire's European Wing has successfully completed payload integrations for the European Space Agency's Sendao 3 satellite mission. This marks a major milestone as the mission readies for launch in Q4 of fiscal year 2026. The spacecraft was built and integrated at Redwire's facility in Belgium. Redwire integrated 10 technology demo payloads funded by the European Commission and developed by government and commercial partners in Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg. The mission is funded by the European Union and will support several innovative technology demonstrations as part of the In Orbit Demonstration and In Orbit Valid program, which aims to accelerate the deployment of new technologies and stimulate the European space ecosystem. And that wraps up today's top five stories for you, my friends. N2K senior producer Alice Cruz joins me now with a look at the other stories that are making the headlines in the space industry today. Alice Maria, I forgot to mention with all the excitement of our first day back yesterday, the biggest career update news from the space industry over the holiday period. Tory Bruno, former ULA CEO, has jumped spaceship over to Blue Origin. Bruno is now the president of Blue's newly formed National Security Group. I see very promising things on the horizon for Blue origin in 2026. Hello T minus listeners. Whether you are tuning in to T minus for the very first time or the 500th, we want to know what you think of our show. So yeah, friends, how are we doing? And you can tell us with our listener survey. As a matter of fact, it only takes a few minutes to fill out and you can rest assured that we will be pouring over your feedback. Link to the survey is in the show notes for you and thanks.
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Our guest today is Greg Gillinger, SVP for Strategy and Development at Integrity isr. Greg, it is always a pleasure to see you. Thank you for joining me yet again.
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Hey, thanks. Great to be with you.
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Thank you so much. So let's dive in. I imagine things have been busy for you lately, so where do you want to start?
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They have been, they have been so really on the China launch side. They've been incredibly busy recently. Some of the folks may recall that we've talked a little bit about a Chinese attempt to refuel one of their satellites in geosynchronous orbit and this involved two satellites called SJ21, which folks may recall was launched in 2021 and did a debris removal experiment successfully did a debris removal experiment in geosynchronous orbit. It's actually the SJ21 is the first satellite to actually do a non cooperative docking in Geo and they was able to to haul out this piece of debris to a graveyard orbit and dispose of it for the, for the good of everyone in the geosynchronous belt. Also sends kind of a message that if I can do this to a piece of debris, I can do it to something else if I wanted to.
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Yeah, it's quite a message, isn't it? Non cooperative is doing some heavy lifting in that.
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Yes, exactly. So very, very interesting. So yes, that was way back in 2022. January of 2025, China launches SJ25 and is nice enough to announce hey, this is a satellites services experiment, right. And we're going to focus on, on orbit refueling and, and they launched it into a kind of a crazy geosynchronous orbit about 10.2 degrees inclination and just happened to notice that crazy inclination plus its, its ran value matched up perfectly with SJ21 at the time. So for, for listeners Changing your plane is a big deal. So if your inclination and your ran match, then that, that's pretty, that's, that's, that's a choice that the Chinese operators made to, to actually place it in that orbit that was in January. These two things actually looked like they docked. They made several attempts to kind of run in and check each other out and then finally came together. And what this means is when we were able to see from the ground two dots before, after the 2nd of July, we only saw one dot from the ground, right? So we assume that they docked with one another and they remain so up until very recently. They actually, in mid August together made one of, I think it's one of the largest plane change maneuvers in geosynchronous orbit ever seen. They both dropped six degrees of inclination, which is a pretty significant expenditure of fuel. And then on the 29th of November, observers noticed that what was one dot had become two. And they were separated by about 30 km at one point. So it looks like they had finally completed whatever test or experiment that they wanted to do. China I don't believe has come out with any sort of public release statement on whether this was successful or not or. We really haven't heard much from them since the actual launch in, in January of SJ25. Right after those two dots or that one dot became two dots. We saw SJ25 conduct what we call natural motion circumnavigation. So an RPO of SJ21. So they, they actually came back together not as close as before, but significantly close. So they may have been checking each other out, so to speak. And then, you know, most recently we've seen both satellites begin to do some minor maneuvers. Right. So both satellites, they're now separated. Oh gosh, it's been a while since, since I've checked. They, they had got down to like 1 to 7 kilometer separation. Now they're at the 60 to 65 kilometer separation. They haven't made it, Like I said, they haven't made any major maneuvers. So if they wanted to bring them back together again, they certainly could. But we're starting to see now maneuvers from both satellites, both SJ25 and SJ21. Nothing really definitive yet that would tell me that this was a success or not. What I'm looking for is SJ21 to make some pretty significant maneuvers. Maybe prepare to conduct another debris removal experiment. Those sorts of things would be really good indicators for us to look at to see if they were actually successful in passing propellant from SJ25 to SHA21 and SJ21 being able to use that propellant effectively.
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Yeah, I was gonna say we're assuming that's what they did, but very likely that. Yeah.
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So we're trying to wait to see what happens with SJ21 next. And we're also waiting to see what happens with SJ25 next. Is this a one and done sort of a scenario or how much gas has got on board. So are there other satellites that, you know, built by China that, that may benefit from a visit by SJ25? So we'll, we'll see if this is the again a one of one or maybe it's the first of, of many to follow.
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So it's a bit of a fuel tanker up there. That'd be interesting if that's. That would.
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We don't. Just taking a look around, the big indicator would be to do any sort of refueling, obviously you need to do some docking at least the way that they have this thing set up. So to do that you would need to do some plane matching which will be observable. Right. So what, what we're trying to take a look at is what sort of plane. Well, what other satellites are, are near the, the same orbital plane as SJ25. We assume that that matters. We don't really know how much fuel SJ25 have has on board. Maybe, maybe it's not as important as what it has been in the past and that, you know, China's much more flexible now in the orbits that they're able to, to get to with, with SJ25.
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So I guess we'll see.
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Which is important for a lot of reasons, right?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Because everyone operates up until now. As you operate a satellite, the first thing on your mind is how do I maximize my fuel efficiency? Because I can't. Once it's gone, it's gone.
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Yeah.
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And now maybe we're seeing that paradigm begin to change, which opens up a whole lot of capabilities and you know, now you're maneuvering to best accomplish the mission, not best preserve your fuel.
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Very interesting to watch what's happening there. And seeing what, what nations are actually capable of doing these things too, is always.
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One thing we did notice in the last couple of weeks was a couple of experimental launches out of China with some of their Xi' an experimental spacecraft and some of their Xijian experimental spacecraft. And the interesting thing I noted from both of these launches that those satellites went into coplanar orbits with Starlink satellites. So they're both operating lower than Starlink. So they're going to be, their orbital period will be shorter so it'll be passing under Starlink satellites nearly continuously. But yeah, so they were both, one was launched into a 53 degree or with the other was launched in a 51.8 degree orbit. And the rants, I mean there's a lot of Starlink satellites out there and they tend to be in these, you know, in this inclination range. There's some polar orbit ones as well. But Starlink's at 550 kilometers over the surface of the Earth. The Xi' An 32s that I'm talking about about 435 and the Xijian 30 satellites, there's three of these are at about 520 kilometers. So again, orbital planes don't happen by accident. That is a definite choice. So China's decided to launch some experimental satellites into coplanar orbits with a lot of Starlink and even some Kuiper or I guess it's not Kuiper any anymore, it's Amazon. Leo.
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Leo. Yeah, okay, I, I have so many thoughts on that, but I, I'm going to put a pin in, in that because I have a feeling by the next time we talk we might know a bit more about that, what's going on there. That is also very fascinating.
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So we'll give it a shot.
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Greg, thank you so much and all the best to you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Welcome back. Rodent research is a key cornerstone of medical science both on the ground and in space. It's been happening aboard the International Space Station and Tiangong Space Station for quite some time. Yes, indeed, there are some very well traveled mice out there who have seen more space than you and I. I try not to be jealous. Just keep in mind that they're not getting a Koopa view. They're in little housing boxes that keep them safe. Yeah. Rodent biology is similar enough to human biology that these mice and other rodents can help us understand the effects of space on our muscles, our bones, our brain, our eyes, you name it really. And a recent member of a mouse crew that had a two week stay on Tiangong is giving us some new insights into an area of biology in the space realm that really has not been studied much until now. And that would be the reproductive system. Four mice on Tiangong were there from October 31 to November 14, 2025. About a month after their return to Earth on December 10, one of the females of the mouse crew gave birth to a whole litter of nine pups little baby mice. The Internet tells me that mouse gestation is 19 to 21 days, so chances of these pups being space mice conceived on orbit does not look likely. And I know you are all wondering. In any case, six of the nine pups are still alive as sadly, it's not unusual to lose a few pups per litter. And according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology, the surviving little babies are all developing well and mom is doing great. So it seems that at least from a two week stay in space that nothing significant was damaged enough to prevent reproduction. And researchers will continue to keep an eye on how the babies grow up if there are any long term effects of space exposure that will show up anywhere, and if the baby mice themselves will also be able to have babies when they become adults. Undoubtedly we will see some experiments in the future where mice become proud mamas and papas on orbit. That's going to make for some very interesting tiny likely cheese based birth certificates. And that's T minus Brought to you by N2K CyberWire we'd love to know what you think of our podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like our 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 are proud that N2K Cyberwire is part of 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 Senior Producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our Executive Producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kilpie is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T minus.