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Galaxy 15 set to re-earn its keep

Galaxy 15, the errant Intelsat ‘zombie’ satellite that went dangerously AWOL last April, is firmly back on the fleet’s official manifest and is about to start earning revenues again, perhaps as soon as January 31st. Tobias Nassif, SVP, satellite operations and engineering at Intelsat, said January 13 ththat during all this time the satellite had […]

January 13, 2011

UK Govt in corner on News Corp

  The attempt by News Corp to buy up the 61 per cent of BSkyB that it doesn’t own looks like being a win-win for two sets of participants: the lawyers, as always, and probably News Corp itself. Our rationale for this is that the British government has backed itself into a corner that will […]

January 12, 2011

Samara: Busy again?

Noah Samara, founder – and potentially rescuer – of bankrupt satellite pay-radio broadcaster Worldspace, is busy with another satellite venture. His name is specifically linked with a non-governmental organisation, and not-for-profit, ’Ahumanright.org’ (AHR). AHR, is based in Berlin, with (according to its website) ‘liaison’ offices in Boston (USA) and Silicon Valley. AHR’s raison d’être is […]

January 10, 2011

CES Diary

‘Please keep taking the Tablets’ could be the motto of CES 2011. Not surprisingly, given the runaway success of the iPad, an industry known for bandwagons has not been slow to throw a slew of screen sizes and functions at the market (there’s a general coyness about prices). Classic is Panasonic which has rushed out […]

January 6, 2011

CES Diary

We’ve all been here I know, but that doesn’t make it less weird. My watch says it’s 10.15pm, but the arm wearing it – and the rest of my body – knows its 06.15am tomorrow. So here I am tapping away with one eye on the updating test score in Australia. I arrived a few […]

January 6, 2011

‘Zombie’ sat brought back to life

Intelsat’s troublesome Galaxy 15 satellite, which went AWOL back in May, has been brought back under control. Galaxy 15 – as had been hoped – rebooted itself automatically as it was designed to do once it had lost all its battery power. During the preceding seven months the craft had threatened dozens of other satellites […]

December 29, 2010

Eutelsat’s revolutionary KaSat launched

Eutelsat’s giant KaSat satellite was successfully launched from Kazakhstan on Dec 26th (at 21.51 GMT). The satellite was scheduled for separation from the rocket some 9 hours after lift-off. The Astrium-built satellite, weighing more than six tonnes, will then require some weeks of in-orbit testing ahead of going live for operational purposes. Kasat is unique […]

December 28, 2010

Did I say that out loud?

We all have moments we wish we had kept out thoughts to ourselves rather letting their assumed importance persuade us to share them with the world in general. Over sharing is an affliction common to politicians (and, of course, bloggers and columnists – but then that is rather their point). Vince Cable is paying a […]

December 23, 2010

‘Zombie’ sat about to go dark?

  Intelsat’s rogue satellite, Galaxy-15, might go dark towards the end of the month. Galaxy-15 has been drifting steadily – but uncontrollably – since April when a solar flare is thought to have damaged the craft’s on-board systems. However, the satellite’s collection and re-transmission function has remain firmly active and has thus been of considerable […]

December 10, 2010

Failed Russian rocket was “too heavy”

A Proton-M rocket that failed to launch 3 GPS satellites on December 5 could have been too heavy, say local investigators. The rocket crashed into the Pacific Ocean destroying its important cargo, and forcing Russian officials to suspend all Proton launches while they determine what went wrong. Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that one theory […]

December 9, 2010