← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
Quantum partnerships and life extension in orbit.
00:24:01
Voyager & Infleqtion to partner on quantum tech. Xairos to deliver a Quantum Receiver. SES & Infinite Orbits to partner on a life extension mission. And more.
Loading summary
Transcript25 lines
- [00:02]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
You're listening to the N2K space network.
- [00:11]
N2K CyberWire Sponsor Announcer
Ever wished you could rebuild your network from scratch to make it more secure, scalable and simple? Meet Meter, the company reimagining enterprise networking from the ground up. Meter builds full stack zero trust networks including hardware, firmware and software, all designed to work seamlessly together. The result? Fast, reliable and secure connectivity without the constant patching, vendor juggling or hidden costs. From wired and wireless to routing, switching, firewalls, DNS security and vpn, every layer is integrated and continuously protected in one unified platform. And since it's delivered as one predictable monthly service, you skip the heavy capital costs and endless upgrade cycles. Meter even buys back your old infrastructure to make switching effortless, transform complexity into simplicity, and give your team time to focus on what really matters, helping your business and customers thrive. Learn more and book your demo@meter.com cyberwire that's M E T E R.com cyberwire.
- [01:27]
Maria Varmazis
Today is November 13th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T/T/20 seconds. SFL Missions has been awarded a contract by GHGSAT to develop two additional commercial micro satellites for the GHG Greenhouse Gas monitoring constellation. SES has extended a multi year Multi launch Services agreement with Relativity Space SES and Infinite Orbits have signed an agreement for one geostationary satellite life extension mission. Kairos UK has been selected by Raymetrics and the European Space Agency for the delivery of a quantum receiver for the observatories to optical ground Stat project. Voyager Technologies and Inflection have announced a strategic partnership to advance dual use quantum technology in low Earth orbit and beyond. And our guest today is Dr. Saralyn Mark. Dr. Mark worked at NASA and has since founded Igiant, studying the impact of gender and sex on innovation and and novel technologies. Stick around to find out more about her work after today's intelligence briefing. Thank you for joining me on this Thursday. Let's get into it. First up, Voyager Technologies and Inflection have announced a new strategic partnership to advance dual use quantum technology in low Earth orbit and beyond. The two companies plan to demonstrate advanced quantum technologies beginning with the integration of Inflection's Tiger quantum atomic clock aboard the International Space Station and then on Voyager's commercial space station Star Lab. The addition of an alternate high precision secure time source in space is expected to provide impact to both commercial and national security missions, including those associated with Golden Dome. They say it will enable autonomous spacecraft coordination and secure communications across constellations. Inflection has already contributed to NASA's Cold Atom Lab which is currently operating on the ISS. They plan to work with Voyager building on that expertise to extend quantum capabilities into the commercial era, powering a new generation of spaceborne data, navigation and sensing applications. UK based quantum technology company Kairos UK has been selected by Raymetrics and the European Space Agency for the delivery of a quantum receiver for the Observatories to Optical Ground Stations project. The project is upgrading 3 Greek astronomical observatories to operate as optical ground stations within the Hellenic Quantum Communication Initiative with the aim to support quantum secure communications from space. Kairos will support the team led by Raymetrix to provide quantum receiver capabilities at one of the sites, allowing the delivery of quantum encryption keys from the Eagle 1 satellite. SES and Infinite Orbits have signed an agreement for one geostationary satellite life Extension mission. This will be the first commercial life extension mission in Europe and it will be carried out by Infinite Orbit's Endurance Docking Vehicle, which is designed for life extension missions. Endurance's launch is currently planned for late 2027 and is expected to dock with one SES geostationary satellite following an in orbit demonstration. This life extension vehicle has been designed to offer Infinite Orbits clients a new generation of in orbit services including station keeping, pointing management, orbital relocation and end of life disposal. And in a related story, SCS has extended a multi year, multi launch services agreement with Relativity Space. The companies are partnering for multiple launches aboard the Terran R that will bring selected SES satellites to their final orbital position. The expanded agreement includes previously unannounced SES launches and Relativity Space's Terran R is currently aiming for its first Launch in late 2026 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and over in Canada. SFL Missions has been awarded a contract by ghgsat to develop two additional commercial microsatellites for the GHGSAT greenhouse gas monitoring constellation. GHGSat C18 and C19 are being built, integrated and tested at the SFL Missions facility in Toronto, where 37 satellites are currently under development for commercial, government and research organizations worldwide. Once completed, the satellites will be transported to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for launch together on a SpaceX transporter mission. And that wraps up today's intelligence briefing for this Thursday. But there's always more stories that we are keeping an eye on. N2K's senior producer Alice Carruth joins us now. Alice, what other stories are you following today and where can we find out more about them?
- [07:19]
Alice Carruth
Thanks, Maria. We include links to the original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout our show in the Selected Reading section of our show notes today we've included links to three extra stories. Third time's hopefully a charm for New Glenn, which may or may not have launched by the time we publish. Today NATO held a meeting with industry to discuss Arctic space security and VAST has signed a cooperation agreement with Uzbekistan.
- [07:42]
Maria Varmazis
We here at T minus do ask a lot of questions, and we bet that you do too. So is there something that you've been wondering about lately that you just need some answers to? Maybe a particularly confounding new technology concept or a hard to decipher bit of governmental regulation now that the government's back open again? That could use some context. Or just like what's the deal with you? Fill that in. Dear listener, I am positive that there's something on your mind and we want to know what are you mulling over? What's the workplace debate of the day? Cuz that could be a great topic for us to cover on T minus. So tell us about it. Space2k.com and thank you.
- [08:38]
N2K CyberWire Sponsor Announcer
Foreign they know cyber security can be tough and you can't protect everything. But with talas, you can secure what matters most. With Thales's industry leading platforms, you can protect critical applications, data and identities anywhere and at scale with the highest roi. That's why the most trusted brands and largest banks, retailers and healthcare companies in the world rely on Thales to protect what matters most applications, data and identity. That's Thales. T H A L E S learn more@talasgroup.com Cyber.
- [09:34]
Maria Varmazis
Our guest today is Dr. Saralyn Mark. Dr. Mark worked at NASA and has since founded Igiant, studying the impact of gender and sex on innovation and novel technologies. And I asked her what attracted her to work in space.
- [09:53]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
I always wanted to be a doctor who practiced on the moon. Nice ambition to have before I realized that women were actually not allowed in the space program. So I am very fortunate that my parents let me believe in that illusion, delusion, whatever you want to say, but it allowed me to follow what I was passionate about and that was medicine and that certainly was space exploration. I was at NASA for 18 years and I was a senior medical advisor in the Office of the Chief Health Medical Officer. But I also had the good fortune to work with a couple of other directorates at NASA, including Human Exploration, Operations, everything's an acronym. And the government, really NASA, you know, just takes the cake with it. But I also worked in obpr, so it was an office of Physical and Biological Research as well. And in those years I had the good fortune of working with Just brilliant individuals, Incredible, incredible folks who I get to work with now through my company, Solomon Solutions. So there's continuity. You never, you know, I always say you never quite lead the agency, but, but I had the opportunity certainly to work on space medicine related issues, to launch two decadal reviews to assess the impact of sex and gender and how the body adapts in space. We know human factors are certainly really important here on Earth and they're definitely important in space because again, as the body adapts, very small changes have huge, profound impact. I also had the opportunity to work in what was generally considered occupational health, public health. When, well think of NASA, they think of the astronaut corps. And that certainly is the shining light for the program. But there's over 17,000 employees that keep that agency running. And so for the Office of the Chief Health Medical Officer, we were charged with keeping people healthy. So I had that opportunity. And then because I was also the medical advisor at U.S. department of Health and Human Services and the civilian medical advisor to two surgeons General, I was very familiar with some of our public health issues. And as you know, during, in the 2000s, we've had quite a few pandemics and we've had quite a few outbreaks. So I was able to help guide the agency to navigate some challenging ones. So it was just an amazing career because I got to do what I loved, working with brilliant people and serving not only the astronaut corps, but our health here on Earth.
- [12:23]
Maria Varmazis
And you're not done yet. I was gonna say you're still doing cool things too. What an incredible career you've had already though. I'm curious, given the incredible viewpoint that you have both with your career and your different organizations, what are you really excited about right now?
- [12:39]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
You know, during times of chaos, you have to look for windows of opportunity. And I am excited about what we don't know because we're going to now have to go out and find it and then try to find ways to utilize it so it benefits humanity. So for example, with Solar Med Solutions, we're launching a seven part virtual roundtable series on bioethics and space medicine. And I'm so excited about that because the commercial sector is really going to take flight. It already has and it's only amplified. But a lot of the questions that we're asking regarding ethics and bioethics, they haven't been answered. So we're going to bring together leading experts across those different stakeholders to begin to ask the questions and hopefully answer them, which then eventually impacts policy and hopefully impacts the way that we Conduct our missions so that it's safety. It's safety and mission assurance. And so I'm very, very excited about that part of it. We're also looking at launching space explorer summits, interactive workshops. Love to have them in Colorado where you can utilize the environment around you. Certainly for space explorers, people who want to fly, but also for space enthusiasts, those who are just intrigued. And then the other part of it is I want to be able to utilize these environments for underserved communities so that we get our children and also adults involved so that space belongs to everyone. One of my concerns is that because the commercial world has been pretty much catering more towards a higher economic sector, some people may feel disenfranchised. And I know for you and me, we were part of it. We just thought we could do it. And I want to ensure that the next generation also has that same passion.
- [14:30]
Maria Varmazis
That's a wonderful, wonderful goal to have, and I echo your sentiments entirely. I think that's making sure that it's available for everybody and that everyone feels that they can be a part of it is so crucial because if you self select out, then it's over. Yeah, from the start.
- [14:45]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
And there's tech transfer.
- [14:47]
Maria Varmazis
Very important.
- [14:48]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
Most people don't realize that some of the technology from the Hubble telescope, we've actually utilized it for breast imaging in our MRI devices. It's incredible. So I want to see more of that because again, the public is investing in the space program. The space program is to me the crown jewel of our government. And that's hard to say because I came from a couple other.
- [15:12]
Maria Varmazis
Other really good ones too.
- [15:13]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
Yes, wonderful ones. But it really, it just inspires. And I want the public to own it because they are paying for it. It belongs to them.
- [15:24]
Maria Varmazis
I think I asked you a while ago about sort of the future of human space exploration and what's possible and what you think is possible and maybe not quite as possible, given what we know about how humans react in the space environment.
- [15:39]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
We're limited by our imagination, though in a sense, you know, the answer is already incorrect because we're limited by our three dimensions that we operate in. I think what I would love to see is that we truly do these exploration class missions. The challenges we have is we have to deal with radiation exposure. Some of the muscle and bone we're contending with, with physical activity, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals. So we probably will get that pretty much taken care of. But it's the radiation exposure. We've had several solar flares, or what we call Coronal mass ejections and, and if you're out there and you're not protected by your Van Allen belts and the vehicle that you're in, this could be a really big challenge. And we're going to probably even have to address it more and more on the lunar surface. If we go and we set up settlements. I do want us to be able to go off the planet. And I think part of that is when you think about you. For example, when you travel and you go to somewhere exotic, in a sense you can't wait to come home. Do you want to share those experiences? But you also have a new appreciation of what you've been through. And I think for us, being able to go to other heavenly bodies, other celestial bodies, will give us a greater appreciation of this planet and how we need to protect it. The commercial world, I think will certainly lead the way. But we do need our agencies again. You know, it's that roi. Yeah, take your time. You're not dealing with, although we're all technically shareholders, that we're not expecting it is a business proposition. But for it to be done safely and accurately, scientifically. So it's that public private partnership and then the other part of it, risk. Let's talk about risk. We will assume risk when there's something huge at stake. For example, if we have an object coming towards us and we need to figure. I always think of that movie, what was it? Armageddon?
- [17:41]
Maria Varmazis
Yes. I didn't want to say it, but yes, that's.
- [17:44]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
We mobilize our forces and we try to do what we can do. So again, that risk benefit analysis. And then if you were to ask a lot of astronauts, would you be willing to go to Mars and experience significant radiation load where you may be putting your own health at risk, you probably would get folks raising their hands and it really, I think goes back to the nature of humanity. Think about what we did to explore this planet. And they didn't have the bounty of knowing what was possibly dangerous and deleterious. Some thought they were going to fall off the planet. It was this little disc, but I think it's just part of our, our human spirit. And as global warming and climate change. And again, words we're not supposed to talk about, we're going to have to think about how do we ensure humanity continues.
- [18:51]
Maria Varmazis
We will be right back.
- [18:58]
N2K CyberWire Sponsor Announcer
And now a word from our sponsor. Threat Locker. The powerful Zero Trust enterprise solution that stops ransomware in its tracks. Allowlisting is a deny by default software that makes application control simple and fast. Ring fencing is an application containment strategy, ensuring apps can only access the files, registry keys, network resources and other applications they truly need to function. Shut out cybercriminals with world class endpoint protection from Threat Locker.
- [19:35]
Maria Varmazis
Welcome back. There are some truly elegant solutions out there being tested for space debris. Capturing it, ensnaring it, if you will, nabbing it with super advanced arms. I mean valid, we do need those capabilities. But let's also be real about what we call space debris, space trash in it. So what do you do with trash? You throw it out. You toss it in a garbage bag. So yeah, no surprise that there's also a startup working on space debris removal that uses the good old garbage bag method. But in space of course. So it's fancy. And that startup is California based Transastra and it has been working on its inflatable capture bag, which is a scalable system designed to trap space rocks or, yeah, orbital debris. No need for nifty robotic arms in this case. Just grab the garbage in the bag and the company recently tested a prototype aboard the ISS and is now building a 10 meter version backed by $5 million in NASA and private funding. And the goal is to keep making bigger and bigger bags in order to capture things like defunct satellites and even maybe one day asteroids up to 100 tons in size. And once those items are in the bag, literally they can be processed for materials while still on orbit.
- [20:56]
Dr. Saralyn Mark
Yes.
- [20:57]
Maria Varmazis
So in space recycling. Founder of Transastra, Joel Surcell says their technology addresses core challenges for space for space debris removal as well as nabbing small asteroids for mining and processing. And while it could absolutely help clean up orbits around Earth, it could potentially enable in space resource extraction too. So imagine mining tiny asteroids not by delicately grasping them with the most advanced of robotics, but by putting them in a bag and then processing them entirely in orbit. And I should note that Transastra is already scoping out near Earth asteroids for retrieval and processing with the goal of nabbing one by 2020. And that's T minus. Brought to you by N2K CyberWire 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 our show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app. You can also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to us@space2k.com we are proud that N2K CyberWire is part the 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's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot 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 Ramazas. Thank you for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T minus.