Alice Cruz (7:35)

Thanks, Maria. It's always tough to narrow down the stories we think you need to know about to keep you ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. So we've included four extra links today in the Selected Reading section of our show Notes. The first is a story from Defense News on the Space Force canceling its contract with one of four companies developing designs for its resilient GPS program. The second is a launch update on NASA's Sphere X. We've added a story on Redwire's technology that's included on the IM2 mission due to launch this week. And the final story is on Captor Space, which has emerged from stealth mode to work on spaceborne radar systems.

Maria Varmazas (8:09)

Wow, that is a lot for today. So where can our listeners find those stories?

Alice Cruz (8:13)

We always include links to further reading on all the stories we mention throughout the show in the podcast Show Notes. Those links can also be found on our website space.n2k.com and click on this episode title.

Unknown (8:25)

Hey T minus crew.

Maria Varmazas (8:26)

If you would like daily updates from us directly in your LinkedIn feed, be sure to follow the official N2K T minus page over on LinkedIn. And if you're more interested in the lighter side of what we do here we are T minus daily on Instagram and that's where we post videos and pictures from events, excursions, and even some behind the scenes treats. Links are all in the show notes for you. Hope you'll join us there.

Dave (9:07)

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Maria Varmazas (10:01)

We are on our last week of sharing our chats recorded back at Spacecom 2025. And our guest today is Mark Lester, aerospace and defense consultant at Merrick. And I started by asking Mark about his work at spaceports and his thoughts on whether we need more of them to deal with the traffic problems we're seeing at Cape Canaveral.

Mark Lester (10:24)

Access to space starts at spaceports and we definitely need them. You know, if we look at what we have today and you know, I'll focus more on vertical because that's really where the market is right now. Yep. But horizontal will be in the future and you know, there's a lot of great opportunities there, but there's really only five places to go to space from the US vertically. Boca Chica is SpaceX, so that's their private site. But then we've got Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral which everyone knows as federal sites. And then Wallops and Kodiak are the other two. So state owned. Been both been around for quite some time and really complement the federal thing. So we already have a start of this model of how do we start to build out a network of spaceports a lot like a network of airports. Yep. And so that's where I see things developing is not in isolation but a diverse set of spaceports that can meet a growing need of operations. So you know, we're starting to see reentry starting to happen and people are looking, okay, well how do I make this work? How do I do this in the US we got some open space out west but some companies are now going to Australia and. Right. So there's a good collaboration now that's broadening out internationally as well.

Unknown (11:32)

And I, I know that there, there are always some challenges in establishing new spaceports. Those challenges are numerous. I feel like I don't even need to get into those because there's just, there's so many. But I feel like in response to some of those challenges, again, how people are trying to establish new spaceports is also shifting. I'm thinking of one company that's potentially trying to move spaceports out to sea, which I think is really interesting development. Just thoughts on maybe alternatives and things that we can do to open up capacity.

Mark Lester (12:02)

Yeah. So spaceports, I think by definition start with launch. Yeah. And sometimes launch can be aspirational in the future but, but it still is a core of where you launch or re enter from. But what we're seeing is spaceports really need a diverse set of Revenue streams. And that's like any business, Right. And so you start to think about what other things can a spaceport do that brings an economic powerhouse to that community and brings value to the industry, it brings jobs and really creates this growing space economy. So if I think about up at Kodiak, not only were we supporting government and commercial launches up there, but there was deployable telemetry antennas. So when a customer like Rocket Lab needed some temporary telemetry capabilities while they were first starting out, we, Alaska deployed their antennas down to New Zealand in support of their initial operations. And then they went to autonomous flight termination, and Alaska was able to bring those back. So it was a good, you know, opportunity for a new rocket company and a good opportunity for spaceport to bring in some diversified revenue as well. And we see those diversified revenue opportunities at a lot of different spaceports. Houston's a great example where launches in the future and they've got a great set of tenants. Arturo has done a great job of bringing in a diverse set that. That is space core, but it's not necessarily flight.

Maria Varmazas (13:31)

Hmm.

Unknown (13:32)

Yeah. That idea of making a spaceport that economic hub is really fascinating to me. And I feel like the many examples that I can think of that I've heard of over the years, they're very tailored to their location. Also the customer and the location and what the sort of community needs. It's really just an interesting way of thinking of it.

Mark Lester (13:51)

Yeah, absolutely. Geography is key, right? I mean, to get to space, geography is key for safety and for physics, but also what the community is willing to support. Right. Sometimes that's easier than other places, and you got to balance all of that. Also having an anchor, for example, if you've got a government agency or another academic institution that you can anchor operations to, that's great. Down in Houston is Johnson Space Center. So that's a great natural connection with human spaceflight. You know, Alaska takes advantage of its geography of being on the north side of the Pacific Ocean. Big open azimuth for launches. And so you got to look for those opportunities that present themselves.

Unknown (14:39)

I'm curious, we've been talking a lot about US Spaceports. I'm curious your thoughts on the global growth of spaceports.

Alice Cruz (14:45)

Yeah.

Maria Varmazas (14:45)

You mentioned Australia.

Unknown (14:46)

It's a great example. I'm thinking also the UK and Europe, India, you know, there's a lot of examples.

Mark Lester (14:52)

Just thoughts. Yeah, absolutely. What I'm seeing is much larger growth overseas than in US Domestic market. And that makes sense. Right. We're further along in the US Than other countries. For the most part. So you would expect that growth to happen. And yeah, we're seeing almost spaceports pop up almost anyplace. There's a contingent here from Nigeria who is looking to build a spaceport. That's exciting, that's cool. Australia mentioned New Zealand already has a SPACeport. And the UK the one thing from a US perspective that's in a cumberment is the MTCR. Right. So export Control. So Missile Technology Control Regime. Sorry for the acronyms, itar. But it plays, right. It plays as part of how we can one export rockets overseas. And also companies support spaceports you got to be careful about. Because that is an export as well. But you know, countries, a number of our allied countries already have agreements with the US so we can make those exports. I see that expanding in the next several years because that diversity is important not only for our economy, but for national security. Yeah, well, you know, got to be mindful. These are, you know, big delivery systems.

Unknown (16:10)

Absolutely. And I mean as more we want space to be global, as more nations, you know, build out their space capabilities, it just makes sense that infrastructure needs.

Maria Varmazas (16:18)

To follow completely shifting.

Unknown (16:21)

Just thoughts, as I said, I kind of want to go down the rabbit hole with you. Your thoughts on what's different things going on in the space industry. So if you were to sort of pluck an idea out of the ether of what's interesting you right now in the space industry, I'm just curious where.

Maria Varmazas (16:35)

You would go with that.

Mark Lester (16:36)

Yeah. So I think two things come to mind. One is I think over the next 10 years re entry is going to be the next big thing. And so how do we manufacture things in space and then bring them back? You know, Varda is doing some groundbreaking work with pharmaceuticals. I think we're going to start to see that move forward. There's been a lot of talk about light manufacturing, fiber optics, for example, other pieces that do it in space, bring it down. When we see the new space stations get established, I think that's going to start to grow. So the crewed and uncrewed operations. But 10 years from now, we sit down, talk. I think we're going to have seen much of that starting to move forward in real economic ways. The second part is the space community embracing other sectors. So space tends to be insular. You know, we tend to think of ourselves as special. Yeah, there's a lot of unique things. Right. But there's many industries have gone before us Aviation in particular, that's really adjacent. We can leverage those lessons learned already, like from airports. But Other sectors as well to then accelerate our movement forward. And I think if we miss out on that, we're just going to slow our pace. So in addition to how airports operate and let's say how we can optimize spaceports, there's things like biofuels, so sustainable aircraft fuels. On the aviation side, as we get more rockets, we're going to need to look at those type of sustainable bio type of fuel fuels or something to sustain in a environmentally friendly way.

Unknown (18:11)

Absolutely.

Mark Lester (18:12)

A rocket. So there's. When you think about bringing things down from space, biotech starts to play and all those unique facilities and capabilities come into play.

Unknown (18:23)

Absolutely. Those are some opportunities. I'm going to do the whole opportunities challenge paradigm. So you mentioned some really good opportunities there. Curious about challenges that you see on the horizon that maybe are of concern or that you're keeping an eye on.

Mark Lester (18:36)

Yeah. So, you know, they say space is hard. Right. I mean, getting to space is definitely hard, but yeah, this is not easy business. Right. And when it goes south, it could be spectacular. Yeah. So while there's been a tremendous amount of progress and success, we still have some hurdles there. So that's a pacing function. Right. When you look at some of the existing spaceports being underutilized, that's why. Right. But it's also the business side. Right. And so I think that's the other challenge is we certainly transitioned over into more of mainstream funding, which didn't exist back in the 90s when we thought commercial space was going to start to move forward. But money moves things forward in progress. And so keeping that flow of investment and showing investors how they can make money in space, otherwise they're going to divert their money into other sectors, which makes sense. So moving that forward, I think the third piece that comes to mind going back to the export control itar is from a US perspective, for us to move out into other parts of the world, we need some of those barriers brought down so we can make that trade more free. If I were to circle back on some of that leveraging of a broader, you know, where we've been in the past is good. Right. We can learn a lot of lessons and we. This industry stands on the shoulders of giants, if you will. But heading to the future, we got to break some paradigms and to really broaden out a diverse set of spaceports. That's going to take a broader set of industry to go do that. I've been doing some work with Merrick and some of their work in other sectors and addition to aerospace, where they're doing biofuels infrastructure and facilities or biotech or even nuclear handling. Right? I mean, you can look at nuclear.

Unknown (20:29)

Propulsion a lot at this conference, so.

Mark Lester (20:32)

That'S exciting to see. As we get more vendors here, you start to see, oh yeah, I need that. I need this. Five years ago, maybe you didn't. So I think leveraging this broader industrial base is going to strengthen space and accelerate that.

Maria Varmazas (20:59)

We'll be right back.

Dave (21:07)

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Maria Varmazas (21:42)

Foreign welcome back. It is not very often that we get to speak about the US Space Force's secretive space plane because, well, by design, it's a very well kept secret. The X37B was launched for its seventh mission in December 2023, and yes, it is still up there in orbit doing things that we don't know anything about. However, just to remind us space nerds that it does exist and it's still in operation, the Space Force dropped an image captured onboard the plane while it orbited high, and I emphasize high above the African continent. It shows a rare glimpse of some of the equipment on board the orbiter. One of the plane's solar panels is visible on the left side of the photo, while what appears to be its open payload bay is visible along the top edge. Now, admittedly it is not much to go by and it certainly stands up to keeping the mission top secret, but it does go to show how high the vehicle is in orbit, with the Earth in the background seemingly way further away than one might expect. Previous X37B missions were flown in low Earth orbit. I thought it would be the same for this one, but no. The statement released with the image explains that the image was used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle and it was captured while in a highly elliptical orbit in 2024 as part of the X37B's seventh mission, the vehicle executed a series of first of its kind maneuvers called aerobraking to safely change its orbit using minimal fuel. The X37B flew for a record 908 days on its sixth mission, and it is uncertain when we will see the vehicle return to Earth for this current test. And admittedly, we do hope they share some more images to continue to tease us about what exactly it is up to in orbit. That's it for T minus for February 24, 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 and 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 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 how@n2k.com N2K's 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 Kilpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazas. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T minus.

Dave (25:10)

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