The C-Band Alliance (CBA) of Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat) has provided extremely detailed plans of its proposals to free up C-band spectrum over the US. The Alliance, in its submission to the Federal Communications Commission on May 21st, says that it could release nine licence blocks of spectrum each of 20 MHz, which overall […]
Airbus Defence & Space has won orders for three geostationary satellites. In a complex series of contracts, two of the orders are carried out with Thales Alenia Space and the end customer is Spain’s Ministry of Defence. The third craft is for Malaysia’s Measat commercial operator. The orders were extremely well received by the industry […]
According to Russia’s Sputnik news agency the first OneWeb satellites that will be launched by Soyuz-2 rockets from the Baikonur cosmodrome are on schedule for delivery to the launch site late summer or early autumn. Launches are currently planned to start in December with each rocket carrying 35 per month. “Deliveries of OneWeb satellites to […]
Elon Musk’s debut launch of 60 ‘Starlink’ satellites should happen on May 23rd – probably. Two planned launches last week were scrubbed for bad weather and in the case of the second launch in order to update software on the satellites. But Musk took the postponement to brief journalists on how he saw the mega-constellation […]
Turkish Aerospace and Argentina’s INVAP have formed a strategic alliance to develop a new geostationary satellite. INVAP is a well-regarded business with some 1300 staff. IT was the first company in Latin America to achieve certification from NASA. It constructs satellite payloads and ground stations. The pair’s statement said that INVAP has been working to […]
Major US broadcasters including CBS, Discovery, Disney, Fox, Univision and Viacom, have written to the FCC following up meetings they had regarding the C-Band Alliance’s (CBA) scheme to sell off 180 MHz of C-band satellite capacity. They are concerned that their long-established satellite feeds will be impacted by the proposals. They are asking for assurances […]
Airline in-flight connectivity and broadband supplier Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE) says it is considering disposing of its Maritime division even though it paid $550 million for it just three years ago. GEE has hired Barclays Capital to advise it on disposing of its non-aviation division including the Maritime portion. GEE CEO Joshua Marks says that […]
Asian cruise line Dream Cruises has signed with SES for its O3b-based broadband service for its passengers and crew. The numbers are impressive, and the recently-launched Explorer Dream will service 2000 passengers with SES Networks connectivity. The SES Networks solution will also be introduced onboard Genting Dream in September this year, completing the fleet-wide implementation […]
Eutelsat has turned in another quarter of disappointing, and in the process issued its fifth downgrade in the past seven quarters. This time, Eutelsat cut its current year’s trading guidance (which ends on June 30th) from “slight growth” (+1 per cent) which it trimmed to “broadly stable” in October, to yesterday’s anticipated cut of -3 […]
A European Space Agency (ESA) researcher says that the impending launch of the first batch of Elon Musk’s ‘Starlink’ Low Earth orbiting satellites could herald the start of the Kessler Syndrome, and turn space into a dangerous minefield. The Kessler effect talks about two satellites colliding in orbit, and that then kick-starting other collisions in […]