The US eases space license and permit approvals.

Summary

Podcast Summary: T-Minus Space Daily Hosted by N2K Networks | Episode: The US Eases Space License and Permit Approvals | Release Date: August 14, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of T-Minus Space Daily, host Maria Varmazes delivers a comprehensive intelligence briefing on recent developments in the global space industry. The episode delves into significant policy changes, corporate contracts, technological advancements, and an exclusive interview with Luis Torres of Torres Orbital Mining.

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1. Executive Order: Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry

US President Donald Trump has signed the Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry Executive Order (EO), aiming to invigorate the commercial space sector by streamlining regulations and fostering innovation.

• Key Objectives of the EO:

  • Competitive Launch Marketplace: Substantially increase commercial space launch cadence and foster novel space activities by 2030.
  • Streamlined Licensing: Expedite commercial license and permit approvals for US-based operators, eliminating regulatory barriers and reducing red tape.
  • Spaceport Development: Facilitate the construction of new spaceports in the United States by removing duplicate review processes and speeding up environmental assessments.
  • Promotion of New Activities: Encourage in-space manufacturing and orbital refueling through a simplified regulatory framework.
  • Government Structure Enhancements: Establish a new advisory position in the Office of the Secretary to support innovation and deregulation within the commercial space industry.

• Notable Quote:

  “We have a critical role to play in unlocking the final frontier by slashing red tape, tying up spaceport construction, streamlining launch licenses so they can occur at scale, and creating high-level space positions in government.”
  — Sean Duffy, Acting NASA Administrator [02:30]

• Implications: The EO is designed to prevent the US from losing its competitive edge in the commercial space industry by dismantling barriers that hinder rapid innovation and expansion.

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2. Galat Satellite Networks Secures Defense Contract

Galat Satellite Networks has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract by Israel's Ministry of Defense for the delivery and integration of advanced satellite communication (SATCOM) systems.

• Contract Highlights:
  • Deployment Timeline: Deliveries expected before the end of 2025.
  • Purpose: Rapid deployment of SATCOM services tailored to the operational needs of Israel's defense forces.
  • Capabilities: Systems engineered for operation in harsh and unpredictable environments, suitable for a wide range of military communication requirements.

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3. ASI and SpaceX Collaborate on Mars Mission

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) has entered into an agreement with SpaceX for an uncrewed mission to Mars aboard a future Starship mission.

• Mission Details:

  • Payloads Included:
    • Plant growth experiment
    • Radiation sensor
    • Meteorological monitoring station
  • Data Collection: ASI aims to gather data during the six-month interplanetary cruise and while on the Martian surface.

• Notable Quote:

  “Italy is going to Mars. This agreement is a first of its kind and affirms our continued commitment to lead in space exploration.”
  — Teodoro Valenti, ASI President [05:45]

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4. Spire Global Announces Preliminary Q2 Revenue

Spire Global has reported its preliminary revenue for the second quarter, indicating earnings in the range of $18 to $19 million.

• Context:
  • Reason for Preliminary Figures: Delay in finalizing financials due to complexities related to the sale of their maritime business.
  • Next Steps: Spire Global is scheduled to hold a call to update investors later in the evening.

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5. KBR and Axiom Space Complete Underwater Tests

KBR and Axiom Space have successfully completed three crewed underwater missions of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (Axiom U), developed for NASA's Artemis 3 mission.

• Testing Environment:

  • Location: NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab at Johnson Space Center.
  • Conditions: Astronauts submerged in a 6.2 million-gallon pool wearing the Axiom U suits to simulate weightlessness.

• Results:

  • The suits remained completely sealed and airtight, demonstrating readiness for more advanced evaluations and future missions.

• Notable Quote:

  “The suit remained completely sealed and airtight, signifying that it is ready for more advanced evaluations and ultimately future missions.”
  — Maria Varmazes [10:20]

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6. Additional News: Space Kinetic Corp Raises $12 Million

Alice Carruth, N2K's senior producer, highlights that Space Kinetic Corp. has secured over $12 million in funding from private investors. The company intends to utilize these funds to advance space superiority and missile defense technologies. However, specific details regarding their strategic plans remain forthcoming.

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7. Exclusive Interview: Luis Torres of Torres Orbital Mining

Luis Torres, founder of Torres Orbital Mining (Tom), discusses his company's mission to develop robotic systems for sustainable lunar excavation.

Origin of the Idea

Torres emphasizes a unique problem-solving methodology:

• "Generation of Absurd Ideas": Encouraging out-of-the-box thinking to innovate solutions for space mining challenges.

  “We need to design something that has fewer transition points and better manage dust,”
  — Luis Torres [09:20]

Prototype Development and Scaling

• Initial Design: Autonomous extractor lander capable of excavating 1,200 kg of lunar soil.
• Scalability Adjustment: Based on expert feedback, scaled down to a 25 kg regolith-capable prototype named Toshly.
• Further Iteration: Developing an even smaller 9 kg model to expedite testing and facilitate easier transportation to conferences.

Engineering Challenges

• Material Handling: Designing lightweight yet rugged equipment capable of managing sharp regolith.
• Operational Efficiency: Ensuring the excavation process minimizes dust and maintains hole integrity post-excavation.
• Analog Testing: Utilizing basalt in a half-inch crusher run with a lot of veins to simulate lunar soil for prototype testing.

Future Prospects and Space Policies

• Torres highlights the importance of developing space mining standards and policies:

  “We're seeing a lot of experts on Earth mining starting to give their feedback into mine planning and geology.”
  — Luis Torres [16:40]

• Vision: Supply raw or pre-processed resources to companies and governments for in-orbit utilization or return missions.

Notable Quote:

“Don't blow up the moon. We need it.”
— Luis Torres [15:50]

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8. Astronomy Highlight: Plasma Jet in Blazar PKS 1424/240

Monisha Ravacetti, astronomy editor at Space.com, features a striking image of a plasma jet in Blazar PKS 1424/240, likened to the "Eye of Sauron" from Lord of the Rings.

• Scientific Significance:

  • Image Completion: Took 15 years to reconstruct an unprecedented view of the blazar.
  • Description: A near-perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet pointing directly at Earth, offering a unique perspective of such celestial phenomena.

• Notable Quote:

  “When we reconstructed the image, it looked absolutely stunning. We have never seen anything quite like it.”
  — Yuri Kovalev, Principal Investigator [18:10]

• Visual Impact: The plasma jet's vivid imagery provides both scientific insights and visually captivating content, drawing parallels to iconic cultural references.

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Conclusion

This episode of T-Minus Space Daily underscores significant strides in commercial space policy, defense communications, interplanetary exploration, and innovative lunar mining technologies. Through insightful interviews and detailed news analysis, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic and rapidly evolving space industry landscape.

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Selected Reading & Resources

For more detailed information on the topics discussed, visit space.n2k.com and navigate to today's episode page for direct links to all referenced stories.

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Stay Informed: Subscribe to T-Minus Space Daily to receive daily updates and expert analysis on the latest happenings in the space industry.

Transcript

[Maria Varmazes]

You're listening to the N2K space network. Today is August 14th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T minus T minus 20 seconds to Los. KBR and Axiom Space have completed three success crude underwater tests of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit. Aspire Global announced preliminary revenue results for the second quarter. The Italian space agency has signed an agreement with SpaceX for an uncrewed mission to Mars aboard a future Starship mission. Galat Satellite Networks has been awarded a multimillion dollar contract by Israel's Ministry of Defense for the delivery and integration of satellite communication systems and services. US President Donald Trump signed the Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry Executive Order. Our guest today is Luis Torres, founder of Torres Orbital Mining, known as Tom and Tom is a startup developing robotic systems for sustainable lunar excavation and Luis will be sharing more about his company with me later in the show. Show Happy Thursday everybody. We're kicking off today's intelligence briefing with an Executive order signed by US President Donald Trump which is titled Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry. According to the summary released by the White House, the EO aims to enable a competitive launch marketplace and substantially increase commercial space launch cadence and novel space activities by 2030 and the order aims to streamline commercial license and permit approvals for US Based operators. This includes eliminating regulatory barriers and expediting environmental reviews for commercial launches and reentries. It says it will cut unnecessary red tape to make it easier to build new spaceports in the United States where more commercial space operations will be launched from to ensure this next generation spaceport infrastructure, duplicate review processes will be eliminated and environmental reviews will be expedited. The White House wants to promote new space activities like in space manufacturing and orbital refueling through a streamlined framework. It will also establish a new position in the Office of the Secretary with the responsibility of advising the Secretary of Transportation on fostering innovation and deregulation in in the commercial space industry. As you may remember, the current Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is also acting as the interim NASA administrator. The FAA's associate administrator for Commercial Space Transportation will also be a senior Executive non career employee and the Office of Space Commerce will be elevated into the Office of the Commerce Secretary. And finally, the Executive Order expects to mitigate the risk of the United States losing its competitive edge in the commercial space industry by dismantling regulatory barriers that it says prevent rapid innovation and expansion. Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy added a comment following the release of the EO stating people think the Department of Transportation is just planes trains and automobiles. But we have a critical role to play in unlocking the final frontier by slashing red tape, tying up spaceport construction, streamlining launch licenses so they can occur at scale, and creating high level space positions in government, and we can unleash the next wave of innovation at NASA. This means continuing to work with commercial space companies and improving our spaceport's ability to launch. I look forward to leveraging my dual row at DOT and NASA to make this dream a reality, and the latter statement certainly seems to imply that we will not be getting a new full time NASA administrator for some time. In any case, you can read the full executive order for yourself by following the link in our show notes. Moving on now Galat Satellite Networks has been awarded a multimillion dollar contract by Israel's Ministry of Defense for the delivery and integration of satellite communications systems and services. Deliveries are expected before the end of 2025. The contract includes the rapid deployment of advanced SATCOM services tailored to meet the operational requirements of Israel's defense forces. Gilat says that their subdivision, Galat Defense, will lead the contract to develop systems that are engineered for operation and in harsh and unpredictable environments, making them ideal for a wide range of military communication needs. Let's head over to Italy now and the Italian space agency. ASI has signed an agreement with SpaceX for an uncrewed mission to Mars aboard a future starship mission, and the agreement includes provisions for several payloads, including a plant growth experiment, a radiation sensor and a meteorological monitoring station. ASI expects to collect data not only during the mission's six month interplanetary cruise, but also throughout its time on the Martian surface. ASI President Teodoro Valenti shared on social media about the agreement declaring Italy is going to Mars. Valente called the agreement a first of its kind and said it affirmed the country's continued commitment to lead in space exploration. Spire Global announced preliminary revenue results for the second quarter, reported revenue to be in the range of 18 to 19 million dollars. So why only preliminary financial results at this time? While Spire cited complexities related to the sale of their maritime business as the reason for the slightly delayed finalization of their financials, providing preliminary figures allowed them to update the market on key financial metrics while the final closing procedures and adjustments were still being completed, and the company is holding a call this evening to provide updates to its investors. KBR and Axiom Space have completed three successful crewed underwater missions of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, also known as the Axiom U. The spacesuits are being developed for use on NASA's Artemis 3 mission. KBR and Axiom conducted the tests at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab at Johnson Space Center. The tests involved an astronaut being fully submerged in the neutral buoyancy lab's 6.2 million gallon pool while wearing the Axemu. The goal was to evaluate the suit's integrity in an environment that closely simulates the weightlessness of space. And the companies say that the suit remained completely sealed and airtight, signifying that it is ready for more advanced evaluations and ultimately future missions. That wraps up today's intel briefing. As always, we add links to the original sources of all of the stories that we mentioned throughout the episode in the Selected Reading section of our show. Notes N2K senior producer Alice Carruth is hovering in the wings now to let us know what extra stories we have included in there for you today. Alice, what do you got for us?

[Alice Carruth]

There's just one additional link in there today. It covers a brief social media announcement that Space Kinetic Corp. Has raised over $12 million from private investors, which they say they'll use to build a new paradigm for space superiority and missile defense. I'll be honest, I'm not completely sure what they're aiming to do with that vague statement, but hopefully with the new investment, they'll be able to communicate communicate their future mission a little clearer.

[Maria Varmazes]

Well, less jargon is always better. And please remind us where else our listeners can find those links.

[Alice Carruth]

Maria we also have an episode page on our website, space.n2k.com scroll down to find today's episode title. And included on that page is the Selected Reading section with hyperlinks to all the stories covered in today's podcast.

[Maria Varmazes]

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 minus can help. We'd love to hear from you. Send us an [e-mail] or send us a note through our website so we can connect about building a program to meet your goals.

[Ben Yellen]

I'm Ben Yellen, co host of the Caveat Podcast. Each Thursday we sit down and talk about the biggest legal and policy developments affecting technology that are shaping our world. Whether it be sitting down with experts or government officials, or breaking down the latest political developments, we talk about the stories that will have tangible impacts on businesses and people around the world. If you are looking to stay informed on what is happening and how it could impact you, make sure to listen to the Caveat Podcast.

[Maria Varmazes]

Today's guest is Luis Torres, founder of Torres Orbital Mining, also known as Tom. And I started our chat by asking Luis to tell me about how he came up with the idea to start Tom.

[Luis Torres]

There's a methodology that I use a lot to solve problems. I think it's called the generation of absurd ideas. So you get into this problem and you try to come up with the craziest really absurd idea and then you start shipping away what makes it a crazy idea. Right. So while reviewing my career aspirations throughout my mba, we were really thinking of entrepreneurship. Right. And create something for by yourselves and get, and get to experience this challenge. And I started thinking, where's my experience in how could I leverage to create something? Right. So when I started doing my research, okay, maybe let's take a look into what the companies are doing just out of curiosity. And that's when I saw that we're relying on hoppers, we're relying on conveyors, and there's a lot of material transition points that I'm thinking, okay, all of these areas are just going to be issues. And let me give you a hard data.

[Maria Varmazes]

Yeah.

[Luis Torres]

So to run a mine 50%, somewhere between 50 to 60% of the cost to run it is human labor in the maintenance, the mobile center, a conveyor, take a look at a machine. That means that if we were to replicate all of the Earth methodologies on orbital bodies, we're going to have to think on how we're going to replace this 50% of human labor.

[Maria Varmazes]

Right? Right. Yeah.

[Luis Torres]

AI software or robotics. And all of this just keeps adding on layers of complexity. So now something that could be feasible, it becomes incredibly hard. So while talking with the idea, that's when we assign ourselves some objectives. Right. Okay. So we need to design something that has less transition points, that has a good manage of dust, even more after learning how sharp regolith is. So that's how we come out with our design. And in a very simple terms, it's nothing but a drill with some inside transitions of the materials. And from there we started moving on by giving me their point of view from space research. Right. Having some collaborators that have been participating at their Frick in Luxembourg with their point of view from space resources. I think that for the past eight months that we've been working and analyzing, first we have a good idea, second, is it feasible? And then how can we attach it? How can we create this good mix in between the experience between Earth mining and the issues that I can see that we could, that are going to translate them exponentially and how to understand this material Right.

[Maria Varmazes]

I was looking on your website and it's fascinating looking. And is this what you're testing right now?

[Luis Torres]

Yeah, absolutely. So our first design, it was the moon autonomous extractor lander. That's the first thing that we work on and the idea for me was that in order for us to be able to think of co are we going to utilize the space resources on Earth or are we going to mine asteroids? I think we need to prove that we can actually mine good amounts of space resources. The first machine that we designed is it's designed to carry or to excavate around 1200 kilograms of lunar soil. So after a few conversations with very smart space people, they told me, okay iterate, let's scale it down. If you're telling me that your technology is scalable, scale it down and let's start testing the prototype. Right. So that's how we ended up with Toshly, which is our first medium class prototype capable of extracting 25kg of regolith.

[Maria Varmazes]

I was thinking it's so interesting to me to hear scaling it down. It makes sense for space because we have to get things smaller. But I often think of scaling as scaling up. In this case it needs to be scaled down.

[Luis Torres]

But yeah, absolutely, online. And this is something that I've been experiencing during the past couple of months while designing this. I'm used to design very heavy duty equipment and now I'm trying to design very lightweight, I don't know, even the legs for the rubber and I'm dealing with millimeters and something. It's just amazing for me. So just to give you a little context on this name Dushli comes from the nahual word rabbit. So it goes with the, I guess you can call it legend. One of the gets a call. One of the gods who saw a humble rabbit that was offered him, took him and decided to imprint his silhouette on the manta. I have always thought of that story.

[Maria Varmazes]

I love that, that's such a. I love that tribute and I love that. That's wonderful.

[Luis Torres]

Yeah, thank you. So yeah, we tested Toshly pretty much on mobility and some excavation analysis Jet and right now we're trying to run in this better agile methodology like create a list of what we want, select what we can do and try to work and iterate faster. And that's how from the lessons learned from this prototype we have, we are creating right now or a smaller robot. So we're even scaling down once more. So this one is, it's assigned around 9kg of regolate. So less than Half of the big one. But I think this is going to let us iterate faster and with the lessons from Toshly we're, we're going to be able to produce faster results and something that's easy to carry to conferences.

[Maria Varmazes]

Yeah, that's a nice bonus as well for you and your team. So that's wonderful. It is so fascinating to me to think of just as you said with mining, you do think of these extremely heavy duty equipment. And now we're talking about things that are so refined and almost delicate but still have to be rugged enough to be dealing with regolith and all the arduousness of mining. I mean that sounds like a really fascinating technical and engineering problem to be working out. But also I imagine it also taps into your imagination of what's possible and what mining on the moon will look like. Because right now we're all still trying to figure that out. But you are doing that work right now to help shape that future.

[Luis Torres]

Absolutely. And let me tell you something. When I first was bouncing the idea with my wife, one of the first things that she told me was don't blow up the moon. We need it.

[Maria Varmazes]

Fair. That's fair enough.

[Luis Torres]

And having to deal with a lot of environmental permits and issues and circumstances here on earth mining. Yeah. One take to look into. Okay. What's on the moon, what are we writing about, what are the standards? And mostly around mind planning, what can and when cannot we do. And it was also surprising to see that like we're pretty young in that regard. There's some agencies that are starting to work on these space policies. I kept seeing a lot of space lawyers starting these very important conversations. So I'm seeing a lot of experts on Earth mining starting to give their feedback into mine planning, into what geology needs to look like before we actually start thinking of big commercial mining for in city research. Right. And that's what I keep thinking, what I keep telling to my team, like that's the goal. Right. That's the vision to be able to be to supply with these raw resources or pre processed resources to different companies or even governments that are trying to labor rush the resources while on orbit or on average on return missions.

[Maria Varmazes]

Yeah.

[Luis Torres]

But I think before all that happens we really need to be able to or to know how to make a hole in a very safe manner of how to do it and mostly around dust and of course how we're going to take care of the hole afterwards. Right.

[Maria Varmazes]

Yeah. I'm so curious. I guess this is the engineering part of me. How you do testing of your prototypes given can't really easily get to the moon to test this. What's your analog for doing all this testing that you're working on?

[Luis Torres]

Right now we're using just basalt in a half inch crusher run with a lot of vines. So I think right now our goal for the prototype is to test first that the idea works, right?

[Maria Varmazes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Luis Torres]

To get a rough estimate of how much progress are the Morse consuming and stuff and trying to create a good mathematical model to be able to base on the new prototypes and new designs. Right now our next goal is to actually start producing some even smaller scale tests so that we can actually start using some symbol lens, trying to design the correct profile for the drill head, make sure that we have all of the mechanisms. Well understand that how they're going to work together, right?

[Maria Varmazes]

Yep.

[Luis Torres]

It's mostly our first prototype is something that can work here on Earth, but now we need to make sure sure that it's going to work on the moon and it's going to work in in the most efficient way that it can.

[Maria Varmazes]

We'll be right back.

[Monisha Ravacetti]

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In the car, gym, even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got her seat close enough to actually see and hear them sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you More Expedia made to travel savings vary and subject to availability. Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.

[Maria Varmazes]

Welcome back. A tip of the hat to Monisha Ravacetti, astronomy [e-mail] for a great article that combined two of my favorite things, astronomy and classic nerdery in the form of Lord of the Rings. You can't pretend you're surprised by that. Just put a pin in that information for a sec though. The article covers new information and a striking picture of a plasma jet in the Blazar PKS 1424/240 which okay, maybe doesn't sound interesting perhaps, but it definitely is both scientifically and visually. It took 15 years for astronomers to complete this picture of this object. And those years of study did pay off, say Yuri Kovalev, who is the principal investigator of the multi messenger Studies of Extra Galactic Super Colliders project at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. And he says this when we reconstructed the image, it looked absolutely stunning. We we have never seen anything quite like it. A near perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet pointing straight at us. Now the object, as I said earlier, is a blazar and not a jacket. But imagine a quasar with its distinctively super bright central jet cone. And now imagine that jet pointing directly at us. And when a quasar juts the sky like a big evil eye, it's a blazar. And Monisha ravi [e-mail] makes honestly a perfect comparison. This infernally hot red streaky circular ish formation with an incredibly bright center. It is just like the eye of Sauron in space. And honestly, it really does look like something that would give any creature, hobbit or otherwise quite a fright. Link in the show Notes for you so you can see for yourself Foreign 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 are 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 the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, the technology and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn [e-mail] N2K 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 Kilpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

[Luis Torres]

T minus It.