← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
SpaceX to increase launches from California in 2026.
00:26:37
SpaceX to increase launch cadence from VSFB. Germany and France agree to implement Odin's Eye II. Sateliot to test a new IoT system with ESA. And more.
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You're listening to the N2K Space Network.
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And now a word from our sponsor, ThreatLocker, the powerful Zero Trust Enterprise Solution that stops ransomware in its tracks. Allow Listing 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 key keys, network resources and other applications they truly need to function. Shut out cybercriminals with world class endpoint protection from Threat locker.
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Today is October 16th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T minus.
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T minus 20 seconds go for deploy.
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Lunar Outpost has announced its first mission to evaluate the performance of its mobile autonomous robotic swarms. Beyond Gravity has doubled its production area for solar array drive mechanisms. In Switzerland, Satelliot plans to test a system that allows its satellites to connect with IoT devices without relying on satellite navigation systems. Germany and France have signed an implementation agreement for satellite based early warning system Odin's I2. The Department of the Air Force has agreed to increase the annual SpaceX launch cadence at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and stay with us after today's headlines for my chat with Jeff Thornburg. He's the CEO and CTO at Portal. Jeff will be sharing more details about the latest test of Portal's solar thermal propulsion system and what's to come from Portal in the future. Happy Thursday everyone. Let's dive into today's intel briefing. Despite local opposition, it seems that Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is about to get a lot busier. The U.S. space Force has released the final Environmental Impact Statement and record of decision for authorizing changes to the Falcon launch program at Vandenberg. The Department of the Air Force has agreed to a SpaceX application to increase the annual Falcon launch cadence through launch and landing operations at space launch complexes 4 and 6, including modification of SLC6 for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles to support future US government and commercial launch service needs. The overall launch cadence would increase from 50 Falcon 9 launches per year at SOC 4 to 100 launches per year for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy at both space launch complexes combined. Under the proposed action, Falcon Heavy, which has not launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base as yet, would launch and land up to five times per year from SLC6. The existing horizontal integration facility, located north of SLC6, will also be modified into a hangar for use by SpaceX. No modification of SLC4 infrastructure is proposed. The Federal Aviation Administration would license SpaceX Falcon operations at Vandenberg and approve related airspace closures Moving over to Europe now, Germany and France have signed an implementation agreement for a satellite based early warning system called Odin's Eye 2. German Space Company OHB has been coordinating the development of an architecture for odin's ii. The space based early warning system is being developed for Europe to defend itself against security threats in the future. The European Commission selected OHB Systems AG, a subsidiary of Space and Technology Group OHBSE, as the project coordinator in 2023. The project has received 90 million euros from the European Defense Fund and additional member states. Co financing the industrial consortium comprises 43 companies from 14 European member states under the lead of Germany's space experts. The new implementation agreement was signed by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and his new French counterpart Katerine Vautrin. On the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels and staying in Europe, Satelliot has announced plans to test a system that allows its satellites to connect with IoT devices without relying on satellite navigation systems. This development could open new opportunities in sectors such as defense and strategy, where Europe's technological autonomy and operation in GNSS denied environments are strategic priorities. The Free GNSS Network project, which was signed with the European Space Agency and led jointly with gmv, aims to eliminate dependency on global navigation systems by using advanced algorithms that enable devices to calculate their position directly from the satellite signals. Satelliot says that this would maintain a stable and accurate connection even under complex conditions such as wartime scenarios. The system is currently being tested in laboratories that replicate real satellite communication conditions and will be demonstrated in orbit with prototype satellites and terminals sending position, navigation and timing data directly to IoT devices. Beyond gravity has doubled its production area for solar array drive mechanisms in Switzerland. The company says the expansion will increase production to 200 units per year, up from 36. That is, if you're doing the math, a five fold increase in output. The mechanisms that they manufacture are used to orient satellite solar wings towards the sun, ensuring optimal energy generation. Beyond Gravity says that it's working on the next generation of its solar array drive mechanisms to further increase energy yield. Oliver Grausman, executive vice president of satellites at Beyond Gravity, says an expansion in Florida may also be a possibility and he noted in the press release, should demand from the US market continue to grow, we are prepared to expand production capacity at our existing facility in Titusville, Florida, where we currently operate a high volume, highly automated satellite panel production. We hope that things continue to look up for them and Lunar Outpost has announced its first mission to evaluate the performance of its mobile autonomous robotic swarms, known as Mars. Now. Mars was developed by Lunar outpost for the U.S. air Force Research Laboratory and U.S. space Force Space Works. The mission will conduct decentralized cross domain swarm operations in low Earth orbit, demonstrating the ability to command robotic workforces that will establish infrastructure in space. The Mars one mission will consist of two small spacecraft, each running Lunar Outpost's Mars software and operating in tandem to demonstrate Mars capabilities. Lunar Outpost says Mars will enable autonomous systems to work together as a single resilient unit, even if communication with mission control is interrupted. The mission will test early cross domain mesh networking and experimental position navigation and timing capabilities. It is planned for launch in early 2026. On SpaceX's Transporter 16 rideshake that wraps up today's top five stories for our intel briefing, but there is always a lot going on in the space industry. Alice Carruth joins us now with a look at the other stories making the headlines today. Alice, what do you have for us?
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We've included two additional stories in the selected Reading section of this episode Show Notes One is on El Paso's decision to rescue the build back better $40 million grant for aerospace manufacturing, and the other story covers the Planetary Society's concern over the brain drain from NASA due to recent workforce reductions. You can read more about both stories by following the links in your podcast platform or on the episode page on our website space.n2k.com regular listeners know that.
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Every day at the end of each episode of T Minus, I read the names of all the people who work on this show. It is a big team effort to get this show published every day and you, dear listener, play a very important role too. Every time you share an episode of T Minus with colleagues or on social media, that not only helps us grow, but more importantly, it also shows how our work is useful and interesting to you. So if you enjoy T Minus, don't keep us hidden. Share our show in your social and professional networks because it helps us grow and makes T Minus even better every day. And thank you for being a part of the T Minus crew.
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My guest today is Jeff Thornberg, CEO and CTO at Portal Space. I started our chat by asking Jeff to tell us more about Portal's spacecraft system and the new testing milestone.
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Our spacecraft we call Supernova, uses a novel propulsion system called solar thermal propulsion. And so we've innovated around what we call our heat exchanger Thruster, or Hex Thruster, which collects concentrated solar energy and heats our propellant like nuclear thermal propulsion, except we're using concentrated solar instead of a nuclear reactor. We've been testing our Hex Thruster under full power conditions in our Seattle facility here in Bothell, Washington. And we achieved full power conditions for, you know, the first generation Hex Thruster that we have and couldn't be more excited about that validation. And the thing that's really exciting for us is this technology has been looked at before and the US looked at it specifically back in the 90s with a lot of hardware, but not in the way we've kind of innovated our designs. And this test really signals for us the designs are valid, it'll perform the way the spacecraft needs it to, to really be able to maneuver from low Earth orbit to MEO to GEO to Syslunar in the way that we're designing the system. So we're now collecting that critical performance data that says, yep, we've got the Delta V or the range, we've got the thrust to move quickly. And it's really, it's really what Portal will probably be known for in the interim is the spacecraft that can do those transorbital maneuvers. And we're testing the system successfully in our facility. That's making that happen in a world first of its kind of. Even what the US government did with NASA and the Air Force Research Lab didn't really approach it the way we did because they didn't have the designs or the technology in the manufacturing domain like we do today, especially with 3D printing and additives. So it's really exciting for us and it's very exciting for the team. And the last thing I'll say there is, not only did we have to design a new type of Hex Thruster to support this system, but we had to Design and innovate and build a test facility to actually test it. We had two unknowns we had to manage in parallel and we had to learn and figure out this test facility for, under high power conditions to test the thing that really makes us unique in the industry.
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That's so exciting. Well, congratulations on all fronts. I mean that is really huge. I have to ask the what's next question. I know testing is continuing, so where do we go from here?
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Yeah, so we have two risk reduction spaceflights scheduled on Falcon 9 launches next year. So we're going to launch in February and we're going to launch again in October. And basically we're going to be testing all of the things that make our spacecraft a spacecraft. Our key flight computer, flight software, key power system, avionics and sensors. Those will get tested in the February flight. And then in October we'll fly a more even larger spacecraft system that's really the precursor to the first Supernova launch. So we kind of are trying to answer the call of both commercial but also our defense customers who they just want to see more risk reduction and path to success instead of some of these Hail Mary plays that some space companies have tried in the past. So we've tried to be very methodical with our risk reduction and our maturity of the Supernova system and bring that TRL level or technology readiness all our subsystems as high as possible before first flight of Supernova. And then in the meantime, hardware is starting to flow into our facility that supports both of those missions next year. We've already built and delivered our hardware for flight for February, so that's built, tested, validated and waiting on launch. And then the hardware for our second flight in October is starting to flow into our facility and we'll build and integrate all of that here in our Seattle facility and our test locations nearby. So Supernova hardware is kind of being built in parallel. So we'll have those two missions for risk reduction in 26 and then Supernova ready for flight in 27. And then I guess beyond that we're also building up a factory or a manufacturing facility that's even larger just down the street from our current facility that supports multiple spacecraft builds a year. And that's kind of a new development this summer and we expect to have access to that refurbished facility probably mid next year.
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Yeah, I would love to hear you tell me a bit more about the facility side of things. This is something I'm always really fascinated about to speak to folks like yourself in these really cool moments because there's a lot of discussion, especially right now about the state of the US industrial base and do we have enough facilities to build these extremely specialized systems like what you all are building. So that's a, that's a fun challenge on top of the obvious, the science and engineering that goes into the propulsion systems and the spacecraft. So doing this all in parallel, that's got to be fascinating.
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I think my brain was kind of rewired when I started my time at SpaceX back in 2011. Right. I mean, I think there's a traditional way the US space industry works. There's obviously the legacy prime contractors and certainly you've got, I think something on the order of 80 plus percent of the defense budget goes to six prime contractors in the U.S. right. So you have that, that system in place. And I think that's driven a lot of group think that these projects have to cost a certain amount. They need to take a certain amount of people. And I think, I think you do have to grow in complexity and thoroughness as you start to deliver product that has to work for your customers. So certainly the companies do need to have more people and more process, et cetera. But I think there's a new way of approaching this to get to the answers faster that you know, Silicon Valley and the tech industry have brought to space over the last couple of decades. And I think there is a move fast and break things mentality, but I think we temper that a little bit at Portal. Right. I think some companies have taken that to an extreme and then too many failures in a row, people lose confidence, the company disappears. Too much rigor, it takes too long to get your product to market. And I think the thing that sometimes our government customers and friends don't always realize is at the end of the day the business has to be fed to survive. You know, it has to, it has to make a certain amount of profit to sustain the business and growth and everything else. And I think sometimes people live in a world of traditional aerospace where, you know, the profit needs of businesses weren't as strong because the government just doled out cost plus contracts to keep projects going. And you can't build a business that way. You have to find a happy medium where you can deliver for your customers, but you need to get that product to market for them as fast as possible. And I think the thing that I like about my career experience in the last 15 years or so is that I've been able, I saw this whole legacy mindset in the early part of my career and then I've seen the shift and a lot of people didn't want to believe that SpaceX could do the things they said they were going to do with Launch and Dragon. And you just, you have to not pay attention to that. That's like my number one feedback I give to other entrepreneurs and founders is if you know what you want to do is possible and you approach it pragmatically, methodically and aggressively, you can make it happen. But you're going to have tons of people tell you that's not possible. Why wouldn't you want to do that? You know, and so I think you just have to push through all that. And then to your earlier question, you have to maintain a pace that maintains your position in the industry against your competition as well. So you have to just constantly be moving.
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Is there anything else that you want to leave our audience with today? I just want to give you that opportunity just in case I miss something.
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Ultimately, one of the other things I'm really passionate about is citizens of the world, of any country, understanding why they even should care about what's going on in the space environment. And, and I think I would say space is key to a lot of everyday things that people take for granted. And so if people are wondering why is there all this interest in protecting and defending on orbit from a defense standpoint or a commercial business case, you now have the ability to generate commerce in a growing space industry that now we're dependent upon economically, whether that's putting gas in your tank at the gas station or the ATM or other things that are tied to a satellite system. Your normal life is now tied to the space environment and the space industry. And that creates great benefit, but it also creates vulnerability. And so I think we're entering into a period of some uncertain times ahead. And I would tell people you need to care because for better or for worse, our economic and our overall lifestyle are tied to space technology. And now we need to actually make sure we're doing everything we can to protect that from adversaries that may like to, you know, put us at a disadvantage in the future. And what I often tell people about, you know, what we're doing at Portal in the macro sense is I'm all about humanity's expansion of the solar system. But if we don't protect and defend that now, there won't be an environment to expand human exploration in for the free use of, of the US and our allied nation. So I think that's what I'm really passionate about, making sure everybody tries to understand that and why it is so critical now and I think we're really starting to wake up to that reality. But I think it's not just the political and other leaders that need to know this. It's really the public needs to understand why this has now become some of because I think people just take it for granted when they go to the gas pump and pump gas and if all of a sudden one day you can't do that and you can't get cash out of the ATM and you can't go to the grocery store process and the trucks and the shipping industry, they use gps. If none of that works, it's going to be extremely detrimental to society in ways that I think people would be shocked to know that we are potentially vulnerable in.
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We'Ll be right back.
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Welcome back. Hi crew. If you've been with us for a little while, then you might remember us covering the UK Space Agency's research into atmospheric ablation. To jog your memory, I chatted with University of Southampton's Professor Minquan Kim in the summer of 2024 and I'll include a link to that chat in our show notes if you missed that episode. In any case, he was looking into the process by which satel satellites burn up during reentry and aiming to understand how this affects Earth's atmosphere. So when satellites burn up upon reentering Earth's atmosphere, they release particles and gases, including metals like aluminum, which may affect atmospheric chemistry. And that whole process, known as atmospheric ablation, is still poorly understood. But early evidence did suggest that metal content in the atmosphere is rising and the findings from Professor Kim's research have been published. The study was funded by UKSA and was also conducted by Durham University and Belstead Limited. Durham identified key uncertainties and called for better observation tools, while Belstad analyzed aluminum vaporization, urging targeted lab testing and Southampton proposed sustainable RE entry strategies through materials and trajectory design. A fourth study from the University of Leeds Co funded by esa, plans to expand on all of these findings. Now we're planning on catching up with Professor Kim about his latest findings and recommendations to support investment in UK research infrastructure to advance sustainable space operations. But until then, you can read the full reports by following the links in our Show Notes.
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Foreign.
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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're proud 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 helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn and stay informed as a nexus for discovery and connection. We bring you the people, the technology and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how at N2N2K's Senior Producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ivan. Peter Kilby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. I'll see you tomorrow.
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