The Indian space programme is expanding and its rocket building and launching capabilities are now matching the best from the rest of the world. In a month or two India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will loft AST SpaceMobile’s heavyweight low Earth orbiting FM1 satellites – and which weighs around 6,500kgs – into orbit. Chairman of […]

Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar has signed a $1.3 billion (€1.1bn) initial contract with Canada-based MDA Space to build 100 or so low Earth orbiting ‘MDA Aurora’ satellites for its proposed global Direct-to-Device scheme, addressing a potential “350 million Americans” and “more than 7 billion additional people globally”. EchoStar says the total cost of its initial constellation […]

Texas-based AST SpaceMobile (AST) will hold its Q2 investors update later today (August 11th) at 5pm Eastern Time. Investors and analysts are keen to know more on AST’s launch and business plans. Some observers are suggesting that an Indian rocket launch of AST’s Bluebird FM1 heavyweight craft is delayed, perhaps beyond September. However, there are […]

Belgian spacetech startup EDGX has closed a €2.3 million seed funding round to accelerate commercialisation of EDGX Sterna, the next generation edge AI computer for satellites. The startup has also closed a multi-unit deal with a satellite operator worth €1.1 million and unveiled plans of an in-orbit demonstration on a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission in […]

A new wave of partnerships between telcos and satellite/non-terrestrial network (NTN) players is reshaping the connectivity landscape, but the market remains far from mature, analyst house STL Partners has reported in its satellite tracker report Skywatch. STL Partners’ analysis of 74 announcements since January 2024 reveals a striking trend: only 20 per cent of the […]

Investment bank BNP Paribas has significantly increased its share price target on Eutelsat following the satellite operator’s results on August 5th. The target price jumps from €1 to €2.9, but the bank still advises clients to consider Eutelsat as an ‘Underperform’ stock, despite having the view that its OneWeb division was now “taking off”. The […]

FCC Commissioner Anna M Gomez has spoken out after the FCC launched a proceeding that she suggests may roll back progress made to close the digital divide as part of the agency’s Section 706 annual reporting. In a statement, she said: “While I have concerns over the potential change of direction this FCC may soon […]

Texas-based AST SpaceMobile has struck an agreement with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for global S-band priority transmission rights. Under the deal, AST will acquire Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) spectrum rights in the 1980–2010 MHz and 2170–2200 MHz frequency bands for use in low-earth orbit. The transaction aligns with the company’s 3GPP global spectrum framework […]

The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hybrid: In Band Method. This feature can be used to augment satellite distribution, using the Internet as a recovery mechanism for data that is corrupted or lost in the space segment. This is important […]

Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat says it will add another 340 of its OneWeb satellites into orbit by 2029. These 340 will be additional to the 100 craft already on order. OneWeb, which Eutelsat merged with in September 2023 is very much coming into its own. OneWeb’s low Earth orbiting (LEO) fleet of 648 satellites was […]