AST SpaceMobile has received a positive upgrade from Bank of America. The bank has given the would-be broadband-to-consumer satellite operator a share price target of $55 (€46.89). AST is currently trading at about $42. The bank says it has based its target on a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis and says a DCF valuation is […]

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved SpaceX increasing launch cadence at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s SLC-40 to 120 Falcon 9 launches per year (up from 50/year) plus construction of a landing zone at SLC-40 and up to 34 first stage landings there per year. The full decision from the FCC says: · […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) is urgently seeking space industry ideas on its ‘intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance’ (ISR) project which calls for a European satellite constellation for military and civil usage. But ESA has set a September 30th deadline for ideas to be presented. This new constellation, called the European Resilience from Space (ERS) is […]

Analysts at investment bank BNP-Paribas have welcomed the $23 billion (€19.6bn) agreement from US cellular giant AT&T to acquire spectrum from EchoStar. But the bank says it is not the best news for cable operators. “Overall, we see this as a good deal for AT&T and the wireless industry in general, and a small negative […]

RSC-Energia (S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia), a main component of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, is very short of funding – and business. A report on the Gazeta newsite said that the Energia portion of Russia’s space and rocket enterprise was being prepared for a sale to a private individual. However, the more official […]

The news that AT&T is paying some $23 billion (€19.8bn) for terrestrial cellular spectrum to EchoStar has alerted many analysts to the implied value of EchoStar’s remaining telephony spectrum. Reports are numerous that both Elon Musk – who has long coveted EchoStar satellite spectrum – and AT&T rival T-Mobile could be next in line for […]

AST SpaceMobile needs to get its second-generation satellites into orbit speedily. The first of these craft, weighing some 6500 kgs, is much-delayed in its promised launch date. Now, AST insists that the satellite is ready to leave its Midland, Texas, fabrication facility and will be shipped this August. Then there’s the question of the rocket […]

Notwithstanding reports of a further delay to the launch date for AST SpaceMobile’s latest FM1 satellite, the company says it has completed development of the electronics board with its new AST5000 ASIC chip – the cornerstone of the company’s next-generation BlueBird satellites. “After five years of rigorous engineering and production, representing an equivalent of 150+ […]

AST SpaceMobile’s FM1 craft is reportedly not going to be launched as speedily as hoped. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is responsible for launching the important broadband satellite, it can happen before the end of [India’s] financial year, which is December 31st. There have been numerous reports that ISRO is not […]

Elon Musk issued congratulations to his SpaceX rocket and launch team on achieving 100 launches already this year. Musk said the record is impressive given that the launches have lofted about 1,800 tonnes of payload into orbit, and accounting for more than 90 per cent of all Earth mass to orbit. SpaceX has achieved a […]