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Grown-ups in the room

On the same day the DCMS has confirmed an earlier leak that it is dropping its mad idea of privatising C4, Matt Hancock, the gurning TV celeb and former DCMS Secretary, closed his personal app (he launched it five years ago, in case you’re not a follower). Does this coincidence indicate that the grown-ups are […]

January 5, 2023

Thales highlights 2023 plans

Thales Alenia Space has praised the European Space Agency (ESA) and its $16.9 billion (€15.9bn) – up 17 per cent – budget for the next three years. Against this backdrop, Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales (67 per cent) and Leonardo (33 per cent) said it would be building on 2022’s success where […]

January 5, 2023

SES vs Intelsat rages on

A slew of legal documents were submitted to Intelsat’s Chapter 11 post-bankruptcy reorganisation on December 28th by lawyers for Intelsat. In essence, the filings represent the Final Report on Intelsat’s post-bankruptcy proceedings and an application to close certain outstanding matters. One particular argument is over $12 million of expense and cost claims (“Bill of Costs”) […]

January 3, 2023

Arianespace loss: Independent inquiry ordered

The loss of a valuable Vega-C rocket and two Airbus satellites (valued at some €200 million) has resulted in Arianespace ordering an independent inquiry commission. An Arianespace statement said they and the European Space Agency (ESA) immediately decided to appoint an independent inquiry commission. “This commission is tasked with analysing the reasons for the failure […]

December 22, 2022

Virgin Orbit gets UK licences for space launch

Virgin Orbit has received the final licences from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to commence launches from Spaceport Cornwall, in Newquay, UK. The CAA said that Sir Richard Branson’s company demonstrated it has “taken all reasonable steps to ensure safety risks arising from launch activities are as low as reasonably practicable”. Virgin Orbit could […]

December 21, 2022By Chris Forrester

Space tourism has a new player

There are plenty of well-known players looking to tap into the market for so-called space tourism, not least Sir Richard Branson and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. Now they might have new competitor in the shape of Halo Space, and balloon flights. Spain-based Halo Space has successfully flown a prototype stratospheric balloon up some 23 miles […]

December 16, 2022

8K TVs stymied by EU regulations

Would-be viewers to high-end televisions are always impressed by 8K Ultra High-Definition images. Indeed, even 8K (from sources such as YouTube) when viewed on a decent 4K set with high dynamic range installed, cannot help but be amazed at the image quality. These images are similar in concept to those when 4K was embryonic. They […]

December 15, 2022

SpaceX value rises to $140bn

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has again raised cash from its investors. The plan has been on the table since mid-November with SpaceX reported to have offered shares at around $77 (€72.50) per share according to Bloomberg. If correct, then this would value the privately-held business at around $140 billion depending on the value of the secondary […]

December 15, 2022

Eutelsat reveals share decision

Shareholders holding 62 per cent of Eutelsat’s shares voted to take the company’s ‘Scrip’ issue of new shares instead of drawing down the offered €0.93 per share dividend. The 18,381,330 new shares will be issued and delivered on December 16th. They will carry rights to the dividend for the financial year starting July 1st 2022 […]

December 14, 2022

Eutelsat suffers from confusing instructions

The influential – and tenacious – Reporters Without Frontiers (RSF) organisation succeeded in winning support from France’s Council of State over Eutelsat’s carriage and redistribution of certain Russian channels. The Council of State, the nation’s supreme administrative court, has overruled French broadcasting regulator Arcom which claimed it had no authority to compel Eutelsat from carrying […]

December 12, 2022