← T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
The X-37 space plane mystery mission.
00:21:17
USSF’s X-37B space plane launched for the 8th mission. SpaceX readies for Starship's 10th test flight. Japan to send a cargo vehicle to the ISS. And more.
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Foreign you're listening to the N2K space network.
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Today is August 22nd, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T T minus 20 seconds to Los L3 Harris Technologies has completed a $100 million expansion at its satellite integration and test facility in Florida. Japan has offered the H3 rocket as a launch vehicle for the European Space Agency's mission to observe the Apophis asteroid. Japan has announced that they will launch a new uncrewed cargo spacecraft called HTVX to resupply the International Space station in October. SpaceX has moved its super heavy booster to the launch pad at Starbase Texas ahead of Starship's 10th flight test. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched last night carrying the US Space Force's X37B spaceplane. After today's intel briefing, our colleagues at NASASpaceflight.com will be bringing us the weekly space traffic report, wrapping up the launch news from the last seven days, and taking a look at what is to come in the next week. Happy Happy Friday everybody. You made it. Thanks for joining me today. It's been another busy week in the space industry, hasn't it? And there is no let up on the horizon. So let's dive into today's intel briefing, shall we? First up, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:50pm local time last night from NASA's Kennedy Space center carrying the U.S. space Force's X37B spaceplane. It is the eighth mission of the X37B orbital test vehicle, which USSF calls a dynamic and responsive spacecraft. Now it's used to conduct a range of tests and experiments that expedite the development of critical next generation technologies and operational concepts for reusable space capabilities. Mission partners include the Air Force Research Lab and the Defense Innovation Unit. Last month, the US Space Force shared that Mission 8 will contribute to improving the resilience, efficiency and security of US space based communications architectures by conducting laser communications demonstrations involving proliferated commercial satellite networks in low Earth orbit. Additionally, Mission 8 will demonstrate the world's highest performing quantum inertial sensor ever used in space. The Space Force says this demo will inform accurate, unaided navigation in space by detecting rotation and acceleration of atoms without reliance on satellite networks like traditional gps. This technology is useful for navigation in GPS denied environments and consequently will enhance the navigational resilience of US spacecraft in the space of current and emerging threats. It is unclear of course, when and exactly where the X37B was or will be deployed or how long Mission 8 will be conducted for Moving on now and let's move over to SpaceX, the company itself. It has moved its super heavy booster to the launch pad at Starbase Texas ahead of Starship's 10th flight test. After completing the investigations into the loss of starship on its ninth flight test and the Ship 36 static fire anomaly, SpaceX says hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability. The upcoming flight will continue to expand the operating envelope on the super heavy booster, with multiple landing burn tests planned. It'll also target similar objectives as previous missions, including Starship's first payload deployment and multiple re entry experiments that are geared towards returning the upper stage to the launch site for catch. Starship is scheduled for liftoff for its 10th test flight as early as Sunday, August 24, with the launch window opening at 6:30pm local time. Let's head on over to Japan now and Japan has announced that they will launch a new uncrewed cargo spacecraft, the htvx, to resupply the International Space Station. Japan's space agency JAXA says the new HTVX orbital transport vehicle, which was built jointly by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Electric, will be launched by MHI's H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space center, and the launch is currently scheduled to lift off on October 21st. And Japan is also getting involved with another international launch opportunity. The H3 rocket has also been offered as a launch vehicle for the European Space Agency's mission to observe the Apophis asteroid. ESA's Ramses mission to observe Apophis is planned for when the asteroid makes a close encounter with Earth in 2029. And JAXA is considering a rideshare launch of its own deep space explorer called the Destiny with Ramses in 2028, and would also offer infrared sensor and solar array paddle components for Ramses. The mission still requires final ESA approval, and that is expected in November. L3Harris Technologies has completed a $100 million expansion of its satellite integration and test facility in Florida. L3Harris says the new facility will support the Department of Defense's urgent need for on orbit tech for the Golden Dome for America. The company's new investment in Florida adds to the existing capability of the Space Coast. L3Harris has invested in more than 90,000 square feet of new and renovated advanced manufacturing space nationwide to support the production of space based missile warning and defense technologies, precision fire control, sensing targets and propulsion and control systems for interceptors. And that wraps up today's Top five Stories in Space on this lovely Friday. But I Spy N2K senior producer Alice Cruz just raring to join us with the other stories that are making today's headlines. Okay, Alice, what do you have?
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There's always a lot going on in space, Maria. I'm sure NSF will be sharing more on the live Laugh launch mission that Rocket Lab has scheduled for this weekend. I'm really tempted by the merch from this one. Don't they always have the best mission names?
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They really, really do. And let's please give their marketing team a raise. Assuming that they're the ones coming up with the names. It's a pretty good guess.
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Amen. We've also included a link to the IEEE article on lunar nuclear reactors that have been such a hot topic over the last few months. Will they have the tech ready for deployment by 2030? That is the question.
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That is indeed the question. And a reminder, dear listeners, that links to all of the stories and original sources of all the others mentioned throughout the show can be found in the selected Reading section of our show notes and also on our website, which is space.n2k.com Hiya T/crew Tune in tomorrow for T Minus Deep Space. It is our show for extended interviews, special editions, and deep dives with some of the most influential professionals in the space industry. And tomorrow we have Guadalupe Casucio, who is the Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Digital Labs and strategic partnerships at Parsons, talking about a topic that we, she and I both will be tackling in next week's Global Spaceport alliance webinar called Space Ports as smart hubs. So definitely check it out for a little preview of that webinar. While you are catching up on some much needed me time this weekend, or maybe enjoying that star party in Saskatchewan that I mentioned in yesterday's show. You don't want to miss it.
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You hear from us here at T minus every single day now. We'd love to hear from you. Your voice helps shape the future of N2K networks. Tell us what matters most to you by completing our annual audience survey. Your insights help us grow to better meet your needs. There's a link to the survey in our show Notes. We're collecting your comments through August 31st. Thanks. CISOs and CIOs know machine identities now outnumber humans by more than 80 to 1, and without securing them trust uptime, outages and compliance are at risk. Cyber Ark is leading the way with the only unified platform purpose built to secure every machine identity, certificates, secrets and workloads across all environments, all clouds and all AI agents. Designed for scale automation and quantum readiness, Cyber Ark helps modern enterprises secure their machine future. Visit cyberark.com machines to see how.
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Let me hand you over now to NASASpaceflight.com's Space Traffic Report.
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I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF and this is your weekly Space Traffic Report for T Minus Space. We started off the week with a launch from China, a Changzhong 4C lifted off from the Xichang satellite Launch center on August at 08:55 UTC, carrying one satellite into low Earth orbit. This was the second Xi' An 28B satellite launched after the first was launched in early July. We don't know much about the pair, but their mission patches line up and when combined they seem to show that the missions have something to do with fire and water. Perhaps the satellites will study Earth's oceans and wildfires, or maybe the symbolism refers to something else. Later that day, a Changjung 6A lifted off from Taiyuan at 14:15 Universal Time. The mission delivered another batch of five Internet satellites orbit for the state owned SatNet constellation, also known as Guo Wang. While it's still in the early stages of this constellation, with fewer than 10 operational launches, it's ultimately expected to grow to 13,000 satellites. The next day, a rocket lifted off from the US to launch satellites for another Internet mega constellation. It was a Starlink launch, of course. Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on August 18th at 16:26 UTC, marking the 100th Falcon 9 launch of the year. After delivering 2024 Starlink V2 mini satellites into a sun synchronous orbit. Booster B1088 ended its ninth flight by successfully touching down on the deck of drone ship. Of course I Still Love youe. With this mission, SpaceX has now launched a total of 9,440 Starlink satellites. Of those, 1,266 have returned to Earth and 7,102 are now in their operational orbits. Back in China, a Lijian one from Kaaspace launched from Zhouchuan. The rocket, also known as Kinetica 1, lifted off on August 19 at 07:30, 133 Universal Time and carried seven satellites into a Sun synchronous orbit. These payloads consisted of three multipurpose experimental satellites, two Earth Observation satellites, one using synthetic aperture radar and the other infrared, and the last two satellites are the first international commercial payloads for caspace, as they're two tiny satellites for the Mexican company Thumbsat. And they're really tiny, coming in at less than 100 grams each. They're designed to test the company's imaging and communication technology. And if you're interested in how the Thumb company released instructions on how to capture the satellite signals on its website. And now we go to Baikonur in Kazakhstan, where A Soyuz 2.1B lifted off at 17:13 Universal Time on August 20 to launch the Russian Bion M2 mission. The Bion program has a long history, and its spacecraft is derived from the Vostok spacecraft, the capsule that carried Yuri Gagarin into space. But this launch didn't carry humans. It's a science mission. So instead of cosmonauts, the capsule is home to 75 mice. Some of them are just normal mice, but others have their genome altered to change how their immune system responds to radiation. One group is more sensitive to radiation, while another group is less sensitive. The mice get to log 30 days to their spaceflight careers, after which they'll be studied further on the ground. In addition to the mice, the capsule carries several other experiments, including one with 1,000 flies to study how radiation exposure affects reproduction. Next UP, an Angara 1.2 launched from Plisetsk on August 21 at 9:32am UTC. It carried multiple satellites for the Russian Ministry of Defense. And due to the classified nature of the mission, we don't know much more about it. Speaking of secretive missions, a Falcon 9 took flight from Florida on August 22nd to launch the Boeing X37B spaceplane for the US Space Force. Now, while most of the mission is classified, we do know that the spaceplane is Outfitted with a payload to demonstrate laser communications between satellites, as well as a quantum inertial sensor to test navigating without GPS. This is the fourth mission for this particular plane, vehicle one, which returned from its previous flight in late 2022. For this new mission, SpaceX used booster B1092 to launch it. The booster completed its sixth flight by touching down on landing zone two. There will be another Starlink mission from California set to launch around the time this episode will be published. Then next week we might have two more Starlink missions launching from Florida. If you're living on the east coast, you might be able to see them, in which case you might also be able to spot a cargo Dragon Launch to the ISS. Success. Over in California, a Falcon 9 is set to launch a bunch of satellites on a return to launch site mission. So prepare for sonic booms if you're in the area. Then there's the suborbital New Shepard NS35 mission from West Texas. This mission won't carry any humans, but instead it's an uncrewed science mission carrying over 40 experiments for NASA, universities and others. It looks like we'll also have a Chungjung 8, a launch from China and an electron launch from New Zealand. But the main event for next week will of course be Starship FL10. SpaceX is now getting Booster 16 and Ship 37 ready for their launch. As we're recording this, SpaceX is aiming to fly as soon as August 24th, but as always, that might be subject to change. So if you don't want to miss it or any other upcoming launch or spaceflight event, be sure to download the next spaceflight app on your phone or visit the website@nextspaceflight.com I'm Alicia Segal for NSF, and that's your weekly Space Traffic Report. Now back to T minus Space.
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We'll be right back.
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Welcome back. I'm going out on a bit of a limb here, but I feel pretty certain about this one. Every subculture and industry has its version of a joke that's basically an impossible dream or tilting at windmills. And for the space industry, the entire idea of space based solar power has always seemed a bit to me like that one. Now, I love the entire idea of space based solar power, or SBSP in the lingo. A lot of us do. And I don't want to say it's impossible, it's just this feels quite improbable at the moment. But who wouldn't love this whole tech idea, right? Grabbing basically infinite power from our local star and beaming it down whenever and however we need it. With zero emissions and zero worries about the weather, it sounds practically miraculous and a solution to so many problems that we have right now. And that is why, no matter how far fetched it may seem or not seem, a good part of the global space industry is working hard to make space based solar power happen. And a new report via King's College London says if we can get SBSP up and running the way it theoretically could, by 2050 it could cut Europe's terrestrial renewable energy needs by 80%. In addition, space based solar power could also potentially reduce Europe's power system cost by 15% and cut battery use by 2/3. Wowzers. But. But 2050 really isn't terribly far away in terms of space project timeline scales. We'd kind of need a lot of SBSB satellites up and running in 25 years. And how much would that cost? Yeah, all very important considerations there. Nonetheless, the King's College researchers say that for countries who are gunning hard to get to net zero, and that is hopefully most, if not all of us, right? SBSP is a tech that should absolutely factor into future models about power generation. It's not such an impossible dream, 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. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to spacen2k.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 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 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 Varmazes. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful weekend.
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T minus.
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This episode is brought to you by FX's alien Earth, the official podcast. Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew in this exclusive companion podcast. They will explore story elements, deep dive into character motivations and offer an episode by episode, behind the scenes breakdown of each terrifying chapter in this new series. Search FX's alien Earth wherever you listen to podcasts.