The planned launch of the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket on January 6th was delayed because of poor weather at the Cape. The rocket, named New Glenn, is now slated to launch from Florida on January 10th. The plan puts it head-to-head with Elon Musk’s important Starship and its seventh flight and attempted ‘chopstick’ landing. […]

SES, itself busy looking to absorb arch-rival Intelsat which it agreed to acquire last April, perhaps has its eyes on its next expansion step. Rumours – wholly unconfirmed – suggest an investment in AST SpaceMobile could be in the offing. The satellite operator’s Chief Strategy Officer JP Hemingway is already on record as saying that […]

Eutelsat’s OneWeb mega-constellation of satellites suffered a near-48 hour outage over the New Year period starting on December 31st. The reason given was that OneWeb core software between the satellites and their user terminals did not account for the fact that 2024 was a leap year with 366 days. Eutelsat’s official statement can be read […]

January 6th should see the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin-built New Glenn recoverable rocket make its debut flight. The business received its Commercial Space Transportation Licence from the Federal Aviation Administration on December 27th. The New Glenn rocket had a successful test engine firing and ‘wet’ dress rehearsal on the same day. Blue Origin has several […]

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has lowered Eutelsat’s credit ratings. S&P says it expects Eutelsat’s loss-making LEO satellites division (OneWeb) and hefty capital expenditure (capex) needs will result in sustained negative cash flow in the next three to five years. S&P adds that it now considers Eutelsat’s risk profile to be ‘Weak’ (down […]

For the past few years satellite operator has kept a very trimmed Dividend for shareholders of an annual €0.50 per annum, for each ‘A’ share held by shareholders. This past year this has been split into two separate €0.25 payments made in October 2014 and with the next due in April 2025. However, this low […]

According to analysts at Quilty Space the SpaceX/Starlink ‘broadband-by-satellite’ system has now hit 5 million subscribers/users. “From its debut announcement of 60,000 subscribers in 2021 to hitting 5 million this month, Starlink’s growth trajectory is not only accelerating at a rapid clip — but the timeline of milestones continues to narrow. After reaching its first […]

Analysts at Deutsche Bank have re-examined prospects for would-be global telco ‘space tower’ business AST SpaceMobile (AST) as being worth $53 (€50.51) per share. They recommend clients ‘BUY’ AST. “We currently expect AST will begin broad commercial service in northern Latitudes during 2026. We expect that by 2030, AST will generate nearly $3 billion from […]

Remember Deep Blue, the IBM computer that beat a Grandmaster at chess? Sometimes seen as the moment Artificial Intelligence entered the public consciousness? These days, it is front and centre in both the tech and the creative industries. Uniquely, you can find protagonists in both who regard it as humankind’s next great step, and those […]

Texas-based AST SpaceMobile wants to become the world’s ‘tower in space’ for its partner telcos. IT has the first five satellites in orbit, and a report from investment firm Hennessey Focus Fund says that steady cash-raising exercises during the past year has created a war chest of some $519 million (€494.9m) to spend on the […]