Rocket company Arianespace says it is looking to handle 22 launches this year with almost half being contracted work for the mega-constellation OneWeb. Ten missions will be for OneWeb using Ariane’s Soyuz rocket and these will be split three ways, with some launches from its core French Guiana spaceport and the balance divided between Baikonur […]
The auction results for 5G spectrum in Taiwan are already worth an impressive $0.51 per MHz ‘pop’. The strong bids for capacity came from shrewd local operators such as Chunghwa Telecom, FarEasTone, Taiwan Mobile, Asia-Pacific Telecom and Taiwan Star. New Street Research argued that should this bidding rate be matched in the upcoming auction for […]
The Richard Branson-backed Virgin Orbit aircraft launch system is close to mounting its first orbital demo flight. Just before the holidays the company said it would be ready to perform this demo flight and launch early in the New Year. Following ground tests, Virgin intends flying its ‘Cosmic Girl’ Boeing 747 aircraft from its Mojave […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched 60 of its own ‘Starlink’ mega-constellation satellites into orbit on the evening of January 6th (at 9.19pm Florida time, 0219 GMT). The Falcon 9 rocket – which was a 3-times pre-flown version – then totally nailed its mission when it landed after deploying its important cargo onto the landing barge […]
Today, January 6th, SpaceX is due to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets into a Low Earth orbit carrying 60 ‘Starlink’ satellites. The rocket was successfully test fired on January 4th. SpaceX will have a floating barge down range in the Atlantic Ocean ready to provide a landing stage for the rocket. It will […]
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has won an order to build a new communications satellite for Israel. Named Dror-1, the craft will have a design life of 15 years. Details are vague as to the coverage or orbital location. IAI is a state-backed business and local reports say that the satellite will cost the Israeli government […]
Satellite telephony and data provider Iridium, which reportedly successfully has already de-orbited 65 of its old first-generation satellites, is looking to fund a space debris removal company to remove another 30 failed craft. Trade publication Space News says Iridium started de-orbiting its old satellites back in 2017 and replaced them with new craft supplied by […]
An additional 60 ‘Starlink’ satellites are due for launch on January 6th, a few days later than originally planned date of December 30th. These 60 will join another 130 or so already in orbit and form another link in Elon Musk’s plan to circle the planet with broadband capacity from his satellites. The “or so” […]
Elon Musk already has a small fleet of ocean-going landing drones and also uses vessels in his attempt to collect his Falcon rocket fairings. Now Jeff Bezos is doing the same, and has bought a cargo vessel which will act as a landing stage for his Blue Origin rockets. Currently based at the port of […]
Reports from Russia state that OneWeb’s next batch of satellites, expected to launch at the end of January, has been postponed. The launch will now happen in February according to news agency Sputnik. The launch has now been postponed three times, from December 19th to January 23rd, from January 23rd to January 30th and again […]