A week ago, Europe’s Arianespace launched its first rocket for 2026 as part of an expected cadence of around six flights this year. Meanwhile, on Valentine’s Day, SpaceX launched its 600th Falcon 9 rocket from its West Coast launch site at Vandenburg Space Force Base and took a batch of 24 Starlink satellites onto their […]
Starlink is connecting more than 10 million ‘active customers’ with high-speed internet across 160 countries, territories and many other markets. “Thank you to all our customers around the world,” said a message from the company’s president and COO Gwynne Shotwell. Starlink was also licensed to operate in Vietnam, it was announced on February 14th. Vietnam’s […]
SES of Luxembourg is the world’s largest operator of geostationary (Geo) satellites. Geo craft operate at 35,786 kms above the Equator. Buying Intelsat and its Geo fleet means that it has around 100 Geo craft in its overall portfolio. Dr. Bryan Benedict, Senior Director of Innovation at SES Space & Defence, speaking at the SmallSat […]
The Amazon Leo satellite constellation, which is already permitted to launch more than 4,000 satellites into low Earth orbit (and is due to see 32 launched in addition to its existing roster on February 12th) has received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) permisssion to expand its fleet. The FCC move is for Amazon Leo’s ‘second generation’ […]
India has yet to issue a full national operational licence to SpaceX but the regional state of Gujarat has signed a letter of intent with SpaceX for Starlink to expand its coverage in the region (which is in the extreme north-West of India). Gujarat authorities said the agreement aims to improve digital connectivity in rural […]
TerreStar has enjoyed – and suffered – a somewhat chequered history. Formerly known as Motient Corp and American Mobile Satellite, it declared bankruptcy back in 2010. XM Satellite Radio (now incorporated into SiriusXM) was a spin-off from TerreStar. The chair of the now Montreal-based business says that to compete with American giants, it intends to […]
The past few weeks have seen story after story appear and claiming that Elon Musk is developing a smart phone to rival that of Apple’s iPhone. Musk has effectively shut down the rumours by bluntly declaring: “We are not developing a phone”. However, the rumours look set to carry on. February 6th saw a Phone […]
Russian space vehicles, not for the first time, have approached European satellites and intercepted their communications, officials believe. The risks to Europe’s military and government communications are serious. Recently two satellites have passed dangerously close to some of Europe’s most important geostationary satellites, the FT reported, and lingered nearby for weeks and potentially collecting data […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued its Public Notice inviting comments from interested parties on the proposed 1 million satellite scheme by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The FCC comment from Chairman Brendan Carr which said he “welcomed” the proposal and now seeks comment on the SpaceX application. “The proposed system would serve as a first […]
Telesat launched its LEO-3 demo satellite back in July 2023. But it is now suffering problems with its on-board thruster. Telesat informed the FCC on February 2nd that it would not now be able to de-orbit the satellite at the end of its mission. The Ottawa-based operator is building a fleet of satellites for its […]