Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s VP/Commercial Sales, told conference delegates in Jakarta, Indonesia that the first commercial flight for SpaceX’s giant ‘Starship’ Super-heavyweight rocket’s “full stack” (complete configuration) will probably happen in 2021. The new rocket is capable of placing a massive 20 tonnes into a geo-stationary transfer orbit, or more than 100 tonnes to a Low […]
London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti Communications says it has signed a three-year Master Distributor Agreement with South Africa’s Vox Telecom. The deal covers potential capacity usage on Hylas 4 and Hylas 2 satellites. The partnership enables Vox to use Avanti’s satellite fleet, which provides full coverage across sub-Saharan Africa, to deliver broadband services to the […]
Congresswoman Doris Matsui has introduced her Draft Bill on C-band (the proposed WIN 5G Act) and is seen as being in line with general expectations that the FCC would adopt a modified version of the C-Band Alliance’s proposals. Sami Kassab, satellite analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, said he is sceptical that this legislation will be […]
Geo-stationary satellites are usually very large, and weigh anything between 3 – 7 tonnes. They are expensive to build, launch and insure. And when a satellite fails or suffers a problem it is a major nightmare for the operator impacting services and revenues. There are a handful of would-be satellite rescue plans under consideration, including […]
Russian space agency Roscosmos says that it will bring into use its new ‘Far East’ rocket launch facility at Vostochny for the mega-constellation of OneWeb early next year, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. Vostochny is now Russia’s second space facility, and will over time take over the launch business currently provided by Baikonur in […]
London-based Avanti Communications has been awarded the very first landing permit in the history of Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). These landing rights permit Avanti to start building a satellite business into and out of Nigeria. Avanti said that the authorisation enables the company to strengthen its business in the largest African economy. […]
Intelsat’s latest satellite, I-39, has arrived at French Guiana for pre-launch work ahead of its launch, currently scheduled for July 24th. I-39 was built by Maxar Technologies at its Palo Alto facility (formerly Space Systems/Loral, now part of Maxar). Intelsat 39 is the 52nd satellite built by Maxar for its long-term customer, Intelsat. The Intelsat, […]
Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, has announced Globecast Virtual Networking (GCVN), a new service offering that brings two-way, high bandwidth, IP-over-satellite connectivity to the enterprise market. It provides fast, reliable IP connectivity anywhere and anytime where terrestrial networks fail or are inconsistent. With GCVN, media event producers and content creators in the B2B […]
A new filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and commenting on the C-Band Alliance’s plan to sell off 180 MHz of satellite spectrum for 5G, has thrown up some important concerns about the scheme. In particular, the letter expresses concerns about potential extremely harmful interference from new commercial wireless applications in the 3.7-4.2 GHz […]
Elon Musk’s plan to girdle the planet with an eventual mega-constellation of almost 12,000 satellites is moving ahead with increased speed. New data from tech journalist Joshua Fruhlinger and the statistics site Thinknum indicated that the number of job listings which mention ‘Starlink’ has increased rapidly over the past six months and in particular since […]