← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
New Glenn scheduled for launch.
00:26:44
Blue Origin’s New Glenn could launch as early as January 6. Slovenia joins ESA. Russia celebrates its 2000th launch of the R-7 family of boosters, and more.
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- [00:02]
Maria Varmazes
You're listening to the N2K space network.
- [00:13]
Alicia Siegel
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- [00:47]
Maria Varmazes
Today is January 3, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T Minus Florida Space welcomed in the New Year with a new re entry license. Eutelsat Group says its OneWeb service is back online after experiencing a 48 hour outage. Russia reached a major milestone with its 2000th launch of a rocket from the R7 family of boosters. The European Space Agency just added a 23rd member state, with Slovenia joining the alliance. Blue Origin's New Glenn is scheduled for its inaugural launch as early as 1am on Monday, January 6th. Welcome to t minus Space Daily. Stick around after the headlines for the NASASpaceflight.com space traffic report, bringing you an update on the launches from the last seven days and looking ahead at what we can expect in the coming week. And we're starting off with the big news that feels like it's been a long time coming. New Glenn is ready to lift off Blue Origin received its launch license before the festive period and then held a hot fire for its New Glenn rocket at its launch pad on Cape Canaveral. Following the hot fire on December 27, Blue Origin's CEO Dave Lemp said on X well, all we have left to do is mate our encapsulated payload and then launch. There were rumors of a liftoff date as early as December 30, but that milestone was quickly dropped, according to FAA notices. Blue's 320 foot rocket is scheduled to launch as early as Monday, January 6th at 1am local time in Florida. Its backup date is on January 7th. What a start to 2025 for Blue Origin. Go New Glenn. The European Space Agency just added a 23rd member state, with Slovenia formally joining the alliance. Slovenia has been working with ESA since 2008, when it first signed a cooperation agreement followed by a European cooperation agreement. The latter cooperation agreement was strengthened with its accession to associate membership in 2016, which it upgraded in 2020 with a new agreement for an enhanced association. Get all that? This included a provision that after its expiration in 2025, Slovenia could apply for ESA membership. Slovenia sees the membership as an opportunity for business and science and hopes it'll strengthen the country's competitiveness in the global space industry. Full membership also paves the way for a Slovenian space agency to be established on December 25, Christmas Day, Russia reached a major milestone with its 2000 of a rocket from the R7 family of boosters. Their rocket design, also known as the Semyorka family of vehicles, has a long heritage dating back to 1957. Yes, indeed, they launched Sputnik with it. Guess the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it really applies to these vehicles. The most commonly flown variant of the Semyorka rocket is the Soyuz U, which flew 788 missions from 1973 to 2017. The Christmas Day launch saw an R7 rocket liftoff carrying a remote sensing satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Eutelsat says its OneWeb service is back online after experiencing a 48 hour outage. They identified the root cause as a software issue within the ground segment. The company was fully mobilized and worked with the vendor to restore full service while maintaining a constant dialogue with affected customers. The 2024, yes, last year leap year seems to be the most likely cause for the outage, which started on New Year's Eve. All those darn calendars. Eutelsat operates the OneWeb LEO constellation, which has more than 630 satellites in orbit. Eutelsat recently placed an order with Airbus for a 100 satellite update to the Constellation and Varda Space welcomed in the new year with a new license. The company shared on their social media account that they had received an FAA reentry license for Varda's third mission, which is planned for launch in March. Varda says this flight, like the second mission, will advance pharmaceutical research as well as fly several payloads in support of NASA and other government partners. And that concludes our intelligence briefing for today. Stick around for the space traffic report from nsf. You'll find links to further reading on all this stories that I've mentioned in the selected reading section of our show. Notes 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. And tomorrow we have Mark Baskinger talking about the Moon Ark project. Check it out while you're taking down the festive decorations, starting your New Year's resolutions, or simply recovering from all of the holiday fun, you don't want to miss it.
- [06:13]
Alicia Siegel
What's the best time of day to get a deal? All day with Jack in the box's all day Big Deal meal. You get to choose from four entrees like the supreme croissant and five tasty sides plus a drink starting at $5. So hurry in or take your time. You've got all day at Jack, Every bite's a big deal.
- [06:39]
Maria Varmazes
On Friday, our partners at NSF have the Space Traffic Report for you.
- [06:46]
Alicia Siegel
I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF and this is your weekly Space Traffic Report for T Minus Space. Starting off the last week of 2024, we had an Electron rocket launching from Rocket Lab's launch complex in New Zealand. The rocket lifted off on December 21 at 14:17 UTC, carrying another strict satellite for Synspective into a Sun synchronous orbit. The mission, called Owl the Way up, is the sixth out of 16 that Synspective has booked to fly on Rocket Lab's Electron rocket. Synspective's Strix satellites are synthetic Aperture Radar satellites designed to deliver imagery capable of detecting millimeter level changes to the Earth's surface from space. After Electron, we had a Falcon 9 launch from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. Liftoff took place on December 23 at 5:35 UTC, carrying a batch of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. This batch consisted of eight Starlink V2 mini and 13 Starlink direct to cell satellites. The booster for this mission, B1080, was flying for a 14th time and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship. Just read the instructions and While many were preparing for the holidays, NASA's Parker Solar Probe made its closest ever approach to the Sun. 24th at 11:53 UTC, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft came within 6.1 million kilometers of the sun, swooping by it at about 192 kilometers per second. During that historic pass, it came closer to the sun than any other spacecraft before it and collected large amounts of data about the Sun's corona. The Parker Solar Probe arrived there after seven flybys of Venus, which effectively reduced the spacecraft's distance from the sun on each pass. That last pass, performed in November of last year, brought it to the closest that it will ever get, facing temperatures of up to 980 degrees Celsius. While in this orbit, the Parker Solar Probe will once again come close to The sun on March 22 and on June 19, collecting more data about our star's corona and its dynamics. These, however, will be among the last few close swings that the probe will make around the Sun. The spacecraft has been operating in space for over six years, consuming its fuel to operate its attitude control system, which means that at some point it won't be able to point itself to transmit data to Earth or keep its heat shield facing the sun for protection at close approaches. But NASA has a really interesting plan for when that time comes. Once the Parker solar probe is low on fuel, the agency plans to turn it around, exposing its instruments to the full blast of the sun, and conduct one last data gathering before it melts away and vaporizes around the Sun. Coming back down to Earth, we had a milestone launch out of Kazakhstan. Liftoff of the Soyuz 2.1B happened on December 25 at 7:45 UTC from site 31.6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The rocket was carrying the resource P5 spacecraft into a sun synchronous orbit. The Resource P satellites are a constellation of Russian Earth observation satellites capable of high resolution imagery in multiple wavelengths. This was the fifth of those after the first three launched between 2013 and 2016 malfunctioned in orbit. But this launch wasn't even notable for the payload itself, rather because of the rocket. This was the 2000th launch of any rocket derived from the R7 intercontinental ballistic missile that the so Soviet Union developed in the 1950s. Members of this family were famously named after the first payload that they launched. So they have names like Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod, Molnia, Luna, and of course the most famous of them, the Soyuz rocket. There were other lesser known ones as well. But if we were to add up all of the launches that they've made, this one was the 2000th launch. In fact, Roscosmos added a sticker to the rocket to make note of this and even made infographics on the launches that make up that 2000 number. It'll be interesting to see whether any other rocket family will ever come close to this number in the near future. Up next we go to China, where unfortunately we had another launch failure, this time with a Kinetica One Rocket liftoff took place on December 27th at 1:03 UTC from Site 130 at the Zhouchuan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket was carrying the Deer 3 research platform and 10 other rideshares into a Sun synchronous orbit. The 11 payloads, however, never made it there. Kaspace, the launch operator of the rocket, confirmed on social media shortly after launch that the Rocke suffered an issue with its third stage, resulting in a launch failure. According to the company, preliminary results show that the third stage lost attitude control three seconds into its burn, triggering the self destruct system the mission was the sixth launch of the Kinetica 1 rocket, the fourth of the year and its first failure overall. The company was aiming to ramp up production and launch cadence of this rocket, targeting eight launches of the Connecticut 1 rocket in 2025 with the goal of debuting a new and larger rocket, the Connecticut 2, also in 2025. But safe to say those plans may now have to change in light of this failure. Coming Back to the US we had two back to back launches of Falcon 9 rockets. The first took place from a foggy Vandenberg in California on December 29th at 1:58 UTC. The mission was carrying a batch of Starlink V2 mini satellites into low earth orbit as part of the Starlink Group 113 mission. The booster for this mission, B1075, was flying for a 16th time and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship. Of course, I still Just a few hours later from humid Florida, we got another Falcon 9 launch, and this one had no Starlinks. Liftoff happened on December 29 at 05:00 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40, carrying four Astranis satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The mission, nicknamed From One to Many, was the first dedicated launch of Astranis satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket. These satellites are based on the company's Microgeo satellite bus, which has a mass of roughly 400 kg and dimensions of roughly 1 meter by 1 meter by 1 meter. These are a departure from the typical geosatellite, which is often several tons in mass, the size of a school bus, and needs a rocket like Falcon 9 all by itself. Those kinds of satellites often cover entire continents, or maybe half of one and half of another. But Astranis Microgeo satellite bus is intended for a more localized market and it's tailored for the needs of the region that they're going to cover. The mission name From One to Many, is a reference to the satellite that Astranis already has in orbit, which launched last year as a rideshare on a Falcon Heavy mission. The company hopes to launch many more of these smaller satellites into GEO in the future, therefore going from one to many. The booster for this mission, B1083, was flying for a seventh time and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship, a shortfall of gravitas. However, this wasn't the booster originally intended for this mission. During the first launch attempt on December 21, there was an abort at engine ignition, something that happened with booster B1077. The booster was replaced by B1083, which flew in its stead, so the mission could still launch relative quickly. The penultimate launch of the year took place from India with a PSLV rocket lifting off on December 30th at 16:30 UTC. The payload for this launch was Spade X, which stands for Space Docking Experiment, and it was inserted into a low earth orbit. The Spade X payload consists of two nearly identical satellites fitted with rendezvous and docking mechanisms. To test these systems in orbit, one of the satellites, called a chaser, will approach another satellite, the target, and will try to dock to it while in orbit. Once docked, the mission will also aim to perform second test objectives like transfer of power between the spacecraft or joint operations in orbit. This test mission is key for India to be able to rehearse and gain experience with docking spacecraft while in orbit, something that only Russia, the United States and China have been able to do thus far. This type of technology will be important for the country's future ambitions as India is aiming to launch its own space station into orbit by the end of the decade and will need on orbit rendezvous and docking to assemble it in space. Its upcoming human spaceflight capsule, Gaganyan, will also need to rendezvous and dock with that station as well. The country is also targeting a lunar sample return mission, Chandrayaan 4 later this decade, which will need multiple encounters and dockings while in different orbits around the Earth and the Moon. Ultimately, India wants to land its own astronauts on the lunar surface by 2040. So the hope is that all of this new knowledge will help to bolster them towards that goal and to wrap up the year. We had of course, a Starlink. It's always the ones you least expect, right? Liftoff took place on December 31st at 5:39 UTC from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. The mission was carrying 8 Starlink V2 mini and 13 Starlink direct to cell satellites into low Earth orbit. The first stage B1078 was flying for a 16th time and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship. Just read the instructions. With the Starlink launches this week, the total tally of Starlink satellites launched goes up to 7,632 since the first one back in 2019. Of all of these, 737 have re entered and 6,176 satellites have moved into their operational orbit. That Starlink launch was the 259th and last launch of 2024. This is up from the 221 launches that we had in 2023, all thanks to SpaceX's record breaking cadence. In fact, SpaceX performed so many launches this year that if you add up all of the launches from everyone else in the world, they still don't surpass the number that SpaceX carried out. And they did it despite suffering three mishaps to its Falcon family of rockets one on launch, another at landing, and a third one during second stage disposal. And the amazing thing is that they're aiming for even More launches in 2025 of both Falcon and Starship rockets. Amazingly, unlike last year, no launches have taken place so far in 2025, at least as of the time of recording. That may change soon, though, with the launch of a Falcon 9 carrying the Thoraia 4 NGS satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Florida. The four hour launch window is set to open on January 4th at 1:27 UTC. Also next week we may finally see the first launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket. With its prelaunch static fire test now complete, everything is being readied for that launch. The rocket went horizontal, rolled back into its hangar, and it should have received its Blue Ring Pathfinder payload by now, assuming all went well, of course. Jaclyn, the landing barge for New Glenn, also departed Port Canaveral just yesterday and is on its way to the landing zone located approximately 620km downrange range. Hazard notices are also starting to come out and all point to a potential launch as early as January 6th, within a three hour window that opens at 6:00 UTC. After New Glenn, we'll have, of course, another Falcon 9 launch, this time from Launch Complex 39A, carrying a batch of Starlink satellites into orbit. The four hour launch window is set to open on January 6th at 16:19 UTC. If schedules hold, another Starlink launch could take place from neighboring space launch complex 40. The four hour launch window for that one would also open on January6, but at 16:44 UTC, just 25 minutes after the one from 39A. Next week in Deep Space, we'll also have the sixth and final flyby of Mercury by the BepiColombo spacecraft. This flyby will see the spacecraft pass as close as 345km from the surface of the planet. This will alter its orbit enough to bring it back for another encounter in November of 2026 when the spacecraft will enter orbit around Mercury and begin its science operations. Coming back to Earth we'll have another couple of Falcon 9 launches near the end of the week. The first of those will be a Starlink launch from Florida, which is planned to take place within a four hour launch window that opens on January 9th at 15:55 UTC. The second launch won't be a Starlink, but it'll be kind of like a Starlink. That's because it'll be the launch of the NROL153 mission carrying a batch of star shield satellites for the national reconnaissance office. The one and a half hour launch window is set to open on January 10th at 3.19utc. And another big launch that will take place next week will be of Starship. And I said big in the literal sense because it is of course the biggest rocket in the world. And in fact it's going to be even bigger than it was the last few flights. That's because this will be the first launch of a Block 2 ship, which means that this Starship rocket will be 1.8 meters taller than five of the six previous Starships. This will be the seventh launch of Starship and according to Hazard, no notices for this mission. It appears that It'll be another afternoon one with the launch window opening on January 10th at 22:00 UTC. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF and that's your weekly Space Traffic Report. Now back to T minus space.
- [19:18]
Maria Varmazes
Be right back. Welcome back. Sound the Aurora alert klaxon yet again. We are in a solar maximum, officially after all, as the Space Weather Prediction center at the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aka NOAA, says a G1 or minor geomagnetic storm is likely this weekend, January 4th and 5th. This solar storm is coming to Earth thanks to something that might seem maybe a bit a hole in the Sun's corona. Think about it though. A weak spot in the sun's atmosphere can make it easier for solar wind to punch its way through. And when things align just right, that solar wind can then make its way to us and result in a geomagnetic storm. A reminder that the Aurora that made headlines last May was a G4 or G5 on the severity scale. Basically the maximum severity possible for a geomagnetic storm. That is not what we're getting this weekend. Just, just a G1 and a G1 level storm impact means weak power grid fluctuations could happen, some satellite operations could be impacted and Aurora might be visible at higher latitudes. So Alaska, Canada, Northern Michigan and Maine for those of you in the North American region. Anyway, here's hoping you have some clear skies for a lovely light show this weekend. And that's it for T minus for January 3, 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 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 team smarter. Learn how@n2k.com this episode was produced by Alice Carruth. Our associate 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. Our executive editor is Brandon Karpf, Simone Petrella is our president, Peter Kielpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful weekend. T minus.