SpaceX currently dominates satellite activity with over 9,000 satellites in orbit and ambitions to deliver ‘Direct-to-Consumer’ telephony. AST SpaceMobile has just six satellites in orbit but has dozens of major telcos signed up to its Direct-to-Consumer cellular plan and this year will have 45-60 satellites in orbit. SpaceX, on January 6th, has written to the […]

Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) certainly compete for the dubious honour of the ugliest kids in the family of media giants. Both badly need a suitor, and Paramount made it to the altar first. But, you know, marry in haste and all that. Skydance was the only serious caller and so became the partner/owner. […]

Abu Dhabi-based Space42, using its Mira Aerospace subsidiary, has flown a High Altitude Platform System (HAPS) aircraft over Spain during December 2025. The aircraft, a solar-powered version called ApusNeo18, flew from the Fuerteventura Technology Park in Spain and collected data focused on wildfire prevention and management as part of the ISSEC program, a joint venture […]

Turkey has confirmed that it has initiated construction of a rocket launch site in Somalia, in North-East Africa. The selection of Somalia for the launch site is driven by its proximity to the equator, which provides a technical advantage for satellite launches. Phase 1 of the build is expected to take about 12 months with […]

The SpaceRISE consortium which is building Europe’s ‘next generation’ of highly-secure satellites, has started the process of procuring its new fleet. SpaceRISE issued its Requests for Proposals’ on December 29th 2025 to industry suppliers for 272 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and associated launch services. The consortium comprises Eutelsat, SES and Hispasat. The current procurement […]

A report from analysts at BNP Paribas looks at the prospects for Europe’s two satellite operators: SES of Luxembourg, and Eutelsat of Paris. Both now play a truly global role – with SES having acquired Intelsat, and Eutelsat firmly backing OneWeb and its global appeal to telcos, commercial enterprises and government/military users. The bank, which […]

French investment bank, Exane BNP Paribas, has initiated coverage of Europe’s two giant satellite operators SES and Eutelsat. The news comes as Moody’s downgraded SES (to ba2 from ba1) on its Baseline Credit Assessment, and the ratings agency withdrew its corporate rating and changed its overview from “Stable to Negative”. Exane ranks SES as ‘Outperform’ […]

Jennifer Manner, SVP/Regulatory Affairs at AST SpaceMobile, told a Congress Committee (the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the Committee on Energy & Commerce) that the satellite Direct-to-Cell business would launch between 45 and 60 of its second-generation BlueBird 2 satellites during 2026. She confirmed that the satellites were under manufacture at its two factories […]

There has been some confusion, not to say argument, as to whether AST SpaceMobile will manage to connect to users when inside a home, office building or while out shopping and inside stores. AST has partnerships with dozens of cellular telcos but the whole rationale for AST is to provide connectivity when out of range […]

EchoStar climbed by 30.94 per cent week-on-week after rallying for seven consecutive days last week, as investors took an optimistic view of SpaceX’s billion-dollar IPO plan as well as an investment firm’s bullish coverage for its stock. On December 11th alone, EchoStar jumped to an all-time high of $109.53 (€93.13) after Bloomberg reported that Elon […]