← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
Space debris crashes into a Kenyan village.
00:27:14
T-Minus Space Daily brings you the countdown of the top five space stories from across the globe and an interview with Tuana Yazici.
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- [00:02]
Maria Varmazas
You're listening to the N2K space network. The IT world used to be simpler. You only had to secure and manage environments that you controlled. Then came new technologies and new ways to work. Now employees, apps and networks are everywhere. This means poor visibility, security gaps and added risk. That's why Cloudflare created the first ever connectivity cloud. Visit cloudflare.com to protect your business everywhere you do business. Happy New Year from all of us here at T Minus. It's our first day back in the office and we're mixing things up for 2025. We're going to be bringing you the T minus space top five stories every day, starting 20 seconds. Los Speed Reservoir Peraton Space secures $250 million in Q4 classified contracts Ursa Major Technologies awarded a $7.65 million contract by the US Air Force NASA's Parker Probe successfully made its closest pass to the sun. India's Space Docking Experiment, or SPADEX, launched on Monday, and over 1,000 pounds of space debris has been recovered in a Kenyan village. Stay with us to Today is January 2, 2025. Happy New Year. I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T Minus Space Daily. Our guest today is Twana Yezaja, and we spoke to Twana last year about how she's looking to leverage space technologies and artificial intelligence to create international solutions for the protection and improvement of global living conditions. It is a great chat, so definitely stick with us after today's T Minus countdown. So starting from today, we're counting down the top five stories in space from around the world. And admittedly, it's been a quiet, festive season while we've been out on our publishing break. But here are the stories that you need to know about to keep ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. Coming in at number five, Peraton's space and intelligence sector secured over $250 million in contracts during the final quarter of 2024 to support the US federal government's classified programs. The company, which currently runs the GOCO contract at the US Space Agency's TDRS site, said the classified contracts support various government programs that are critical to national security and public safety. Peraton says it'll continue to support the government through the development and maintenance of ground stations, advanced technical platforms, and cloud environments. It'll also provide systems engineering, verification and integration support, and deploy network and infrastructure to ensure the security of government systems. Ursa Major Technologies has been awarded a $7.65 million firm fixed price contract for Space Launch System Propulsion Technology by the US Air Force. This contract is for follow on work to mature advanced liquid rocket engines. Work will be performed at Ursa Major's Colorado base and is expected to be completed by May 11, 2027. Very specific date before we took time off for the holidays. We did report that NASA planned to make its closest pass to the sun and on December 24th it achieved just that. The Parker Solar probe broke its previous record flying at just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the sun. The probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles an hour, faster than any human made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received late on December 26 confirmed that the spacecraft had successfully made it through the solar encounter safely and NASA says that it is operating normally. ISRO's space docking experiment, also known as Spadex, launched earlier this week. The mission aimed to develop and demonstrate technologies for spacecraft rendezvous, docking and undocking using two small satellites. India's Space Research Organization says these capabilities are critical for future missions, including satellite servicing, space station operations and interplanetary exploration. A PSLV C60 rocket carried the primary payload, the SPADX, as well as 24 different experiments aboard the POM4 secondary payload module. These include a walking robot arm, a debris capture robotic manipulator, a compact plant research module, and a range of sensors. The mission involves deploying two small spacecraft to demonstrate the transfer of electric power between the docked spacecraft. Each satellite carries payloads including an imaging system and a radiation monitoring device designed to measure electron and proton radiation levels in space, providing critical data for future human spaceflight missions. ISRO Chairman Asomenath said the actual testing of the docking technology is expected around January 7th. And for our top story today, Kenyan authorities are investigating what appears to be an incident of space debris crashing into a village in the country's south. The Kenya Space Agency KSA said a metallic ring roughly 8ft in diameter and weighing more than 1,000 pounds crashed into Mukoku Village in Makoini county on December 30th. Very fortunately, no one was injured. Their initial assessment has found that the fallen object is a separation ring from a launch vehicle, which are designed to either burn up on reentry to Earth's atmosphere or fall over uninhabited areas. Witnesses who observed the incident said the object fell from space with a loud bang that reverberated for miles. Local residents immediately arrived at the scene, and images shared on social media showed them handling the object barehanded, oblivious of any danger it might have exposed them to. KSA officials are working alongside a multi agency team and local authorities and have secured the area and retrieved the debris, which is now under the agency's custody for further investigation. KSA said in a statement that this is an isolated case which the agency will investigate and address. They went on to say that the object was not a threat to public safety and praised the villagers nearby who had swiftly alerted authorities. The origin of the separation ring remains unclear and we will bring you further updates on the story when information is available. And this concludes our first intelligence briefing for 2020 25. You'll find links to further reading on all the stories mentioned in our show. Notes We've added three additional articles for you to read. One's on NATO working to reroute data through space, an announcement from Ispace Europe and asi, and another announcement from Voyager Space and Leo Cloud. Hey T minus Crew. If your business is looking to grow your voice in the industry, expand the reach of your thought leadership or recruit talent, T can help. We'd love to hear from you. Send us an email@space2k.com or send us a note through our website so we can connect about building a program to meet your goals. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Forget the frustration of picking commerce platforms when you switch your business to Shopify, the global commerce platform that supercharges your selling. Wherever you sell. With Shopify, you'll harness the same intuitive features, trusted apps and powerful analytics used by the world's leading brands. Sign up today for your $1 per month trial period@shopify.com tech all lowercase. That's shopify.com tech oh, such a clutch.
- [08:23]
Twana Yezaja
Off season pickup Dave.
- [08:25]
Maria Varmazas
I was worried we'd bring back the same team.
- [08:26]
Twana Yezaja
I meant those Blackout motorized shades.
- [08:28]
Maria Varmazas
Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds.
- [08:32]
Twana Yezaja
Hard to install? No, it's easy.
- [08:34]
Maria Varmazas
I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talk to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install hall of Fame son.
- [08:41]
Twana Yezaja
They're the number one online retailer of.
- [08:42]
Maria Varmazas
Custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the goat shop blinds.com right now and get up to 40% off select styles plus a free professional measure. Rules and restrictions may apply. Our guest today is Twana Yezide, Chair and CEO of Twana Group and the nonprofit Aero AI Global Solutions.
- [09:06]
Twana Yezaja
We aim to utilize space technologies and AI to create international solutions for the protection and improvement of global living conditions. And our key objectives include education, research and design of our own projects and then the international implementation of those projects and then also forging meaningful partnerships. So by collaborating with different stakeholders and working on national and international laws, we effectively address critical global challenges. So we have multiple projects in the works right now and one of our current projects. So this isn't what the nonprofit is entirely made of. It's just one of the current projects that we're implementing right now, which is based on one of my journal publications from about three years ago. It's how to use these space technologies like radio frequency radar, AI and optical satellite imagery to monitor international human and wildlife trafficking hotspots.
- [10:13]
Maria Varmazas
Not just to sound simplistic, it's a wonderful idea. Talk about improving life on Earth using space. I mean, this is such a fantastic example of how space can really make a serious difference in people's lives and also the lives of other creatures that we share this planet with. So, anyway, but yeah, before we get into that, tell me a bit about the genesis of this idea. This is a great idea.
- [10:34]
Twana Yezaja
So my work started a very long time ago, not in the space sector, but my love for helping people, animals, and also our environment started from a very young age. I actually wrote four children's books about these, these topics and my first one got published when I was seven.
- [10:53]
Maria Varmazas
So. Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
- [10:55]
Twana Yezaja
Wow. Donated all the profits from all four books to animal charities to also improve the great work that they've been working on. So that's how I initially start to showcase, you know, how important education is, how important, you know, showcasing this sort of knowledge and to like, different audiences and being able to kind of showcase these problems to young children at an early age. So they also start talking and thinking about these problems as well. So I then start to delve more into the more technical journal publications and other publications work. But the reason why I started to get into the technology and the legal side of things is because I start to see the power of what law can do. And I saw that firsthand when I worked with the mayor of Istanbul when I was 19 to pass a law that banned horse drawn carriages in the Princess Island. So it's an island closed right off of Turkey and basically turned the entire transportation system to electric cars and saved 1500 abused horses. So I worked as the advisor for that and I came up with the feasibility plan for that. So no longer. Yes.
- [12:23]
Maria Varmazas
That's amazing. I'm sorry, that's just. That's really incredible.
- [12:26]
Twana Yezaja
Thank you. So that's when I started to see how important working with regulators and lawmakers is, because so they have had so many protests that show, you know, Showcase that this is a big problem, how animals are being abused, whatnot, which is, you know, great for showing awareness and spreading awareness. But afterwards there's like, the next steps are working with these individuals to actually come up with feasible ways to make permanent change. And that's what I always was interested in, the permanent change. And the only way to do that is understanding how the law works, working within it, and working with these regulators to basically fit the system into their system. So that's another one of the big reasons why I also wanted to go into law school. So my background is I studied ppe, so philosophy, politics, economics, and minored in psychology. And then for my Master's I International Administration with a concentration in International Space Law. You know, people ask me, like, why on earth are you doing law school if you're already doing these companies and a nonprofit? Because they know that's what I'm going to continue doing after law school.
- [13:33]
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, you're not busy enough. I mean.
- [13:37]
Twana Yezaja
Yeah, yeah. So I, I explained there are two main reasons why I wanted to go to law school. One of them is the more basic. Let's be a good CEO, understand how the law works. You know, being able to. Because these are going to be international companies too. So it's going to be a lot of work on our end to ensure that it's run properly. So that's just on, like a very basic way of explaining that. Another reason why I wanted to go to law is a lot of the work that we do is implementing international systems that also require a lot of knowledge on what to push for in terms of certain international laws and agreements, like bilateral agreements or regulations to be put in place to actually ensure that permanent change that we're looking for. And a lot of the laws and regulations are so behind in the space sector because, you know, our technology improves every three seconds. So we need to be able to push for these proper laws. And in order to do that, you need to have knowledge on what exactly needs to be put into place, recognize that, and also have that credibility when pushing for this sort of change.
- [14:51]
Maria Varmazas
So in the context of all this fantastic legal understanding that you have and that you can bring to bear here, as I said, as if you're not busy enough, you've got this, I mean, really impactful project, really is underselling it.
- [15:04]
Twana Yezaja
But.
- [15:04]
Maria Varmazas
So tell me about Project Aero AI Guardian. I know this is one of the many things you're working on, but I really want to make sure our audience hears you explain this, because I think it's just really incredible.
- [15:15]
Twana Yezaja
Aero AI Guardian. Basically, our goal is to work towards a robust international system that's focused on utilizing these space technologies like radar, radio frequency AI and optical satellite imagery to monitor international human and wildlife trafficking hotspots. But the main goal is to develop preventive measures to combat trafficking and to ensure the implementation of appropriate legal actions on an international scale. So basically an accountability system. So what makes this very different from just using satellite imagery and just pointing to a certain hotspot and asking, you know, just gathering that data, is there's a government component to this. So we're seeking funding from Homeland Security and we also want to partner with Fish and Wildlife Service, alongside our partnerships with satellite companies to have access to all this data. And then we want to combine that data with some of our other partners. And one of our partners is the Royal foundation of the uk. So the Royal foundation is United for Wildlife. It was founded by Prince William in 2013. And so they're also kindly sharing their resources with us. So combining all that with some of the other data companies and then sending it to Homeland Security so that we can actually utilize all of this as evidence in court. So it actually helps their criminal investigations. And the Homeland Security and Fish and Wildlife Service, they have international investigations. So this isn't just monitoring hotspots in the us, it's all over the world. So this is very important because wildlife trafficking and human trafficking overlap quite a bit, for example, with unregistered vessels that do illegal fishing. And then that also overlaps with human trafficking. For example, you would need radio frequency to geolocate SAR and optical satellite imagery to get that imagery side, and then AI to also for pattern recognition. But you can't do any of that if you don't have the intel from the government either. So everything goes hand in hand. Either they have the intel and they don't have access to the sort of technology, or they have the technology and they don't have access to intel. So either way, utilizing all these resources in a proper way is important to make actual, effective and permanent change. So this is something that we're currently working on.
- [17:43]
Maria Varmazas
It sounds like you're filling an important gap there, that capabilities or knowledge gap, either way, that seems to be the goal that you're trying to achieve here, if I'm understanding correctly.
- [17:52]
Twana Yezaja
Exactly. Because NGOs have a lot to offer. These satellite companies with their amazing technologies, they have so much to offer. And obviously the government's also working on these investigations, but sometimes their manpower is not enough. They can't go to Every, you know, try and fix every single issue. They need more help from these sorts of technologies that can help them also be more effective. So that's a huge part of our work. And it's hard to sometimes envision how this is all going to play out. So a pilot program is necessary to showcase, look, this works, and then this is what we need. And then that's where the funding would come in. So that's where we're at with the project.
- [18:34]
Maria Varmazas
That's awesome. Thank you so much for walking me through that. And we have, in essence, the space industry listening through the show. Is there anything you want them to know? Any kind of call to action, something that you need, something you want to tell them?
- [18:45]
Twana Yezaja
So we are looking to partner with satellite companies that want to take that extra step and wanting to utilize their technologies for good. Because it's important to also remember that we still live on this planet. It's important to remember that this sort of technology can help improve life on Earth, not just for us, but also, like you said, the creatures that we share this planet with. And that's why I would encourage companies to think, okay, aside from our businesses, this is also another path that we can utilize our technologies for good for this sort of purpose. Because after the pilot program, there's going to be opportunity for more and more companies to join this big undertaking. Because no one can do this alone. Not a single company can do this alone. No single, single government can do this alone. An international problem needs an international solution. And we need all sorts of partners who can dedicate some of their resources to us to ensure that we're utilizing absolutely anything possible to address this very important issue.
- [20:02]
Maria Varmazas
Foreign we'll be right back. Welcome back. While we were on our publishing break here at T minus, on December 29, 2024, the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, died at 100 years old. He was President from 1977 to 1981, and he's not really considered a space proponent by any stretch. But in looking back at his legacy, perhaps it's time we tweak that perception. For one thing, there is a great article by Eric Berger on Ars Technica that you really should read, and we'll link it for you in the show notes. The article's about how Carter ended up being the president who saved NASA's then nascent and troubled space shuttle program. Not because of his feelings towards human spaceflight, mind you, because Carter was not really sold on that idea to begin with, but because of the shuttle's utility in launching national security satellites, namely arms control verification satellites, to keep an eye on Cold War rival the Soviet Union. Reasons aside by President Carter sparing the shuttle's budget, the end result was the iconic space shuttle program that then ran for decades. And while President Carter wasn't the biggest fan of space necessarily, he does get a bit of the last laugh on all of this. His message of peace is on both golden records launched on the twin Voyagers in 1977, which are now in interstellar space. His voice will outlast humanity in eternal space, he wrote. This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours, we hope, someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe. That's it for T for January 2, 2025, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes@space.n2k.com we're privileged that N2K and podcasts like T Minus are part of the daily routine of many 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. This episode was produced by Alice Carruth. Our associate 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. Our executive editor is Brandon Karpf. Simone Petrella is our president, Peter Kilby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T Minus.