Advanced Television

Satellite

Maxar/SS-L cuts 4% of staff

Maxar Technologies, which owns the Space Systems/Loral satellite building division, suffered net losses for the year to December 31st of $1.26 billion on group revenues of $2.14 billion. As a consequence, Maxar is laying off some 250 jobs from its 6100 overall workforce. The job losses are spread over Maxar’s Canadian MDA robotic arm business […]

March 4, 2019By Chris Forrester

Telesat adjusts to manage LEO scheme

Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat, the world’s fourth-largest, is moving some assets around in preparation for its planned multi-billion dollar constellation of Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) craft. The news emerged hot on the heels of Telesat’s financial numbers for 2018, which showed a 3 per cent fall in overall revenue to C$903 million (about €584m). However, […]

March 4, 2019

Eutelsat KONNECT satellite payload mates with platform

Eutelsat Communications has announced the successful mating of the platform and payload of the KONNECT satellite, conducted at Thales Alenia Space’s facilities in Cannes. This operation is a major step in the construction of the satellite, in preparation for its launch by the end of this year. KONNECT is a next-generation High Throughput satellite offering […]

March 4, 2019

O3b planning March 29 launch date

Arianespace says that it will launch the next batch of SES-backed O3b satellites on March 29th. The company will use the Russian Soyuz rocket for the task, and the mission is to carry four O3b satellites into orbit. The new date is a few days later than originally expected. Arianespace’s CEO Stephane Israel said “Soyuz […]

March 1, 2019By Chris Forrester

OneWeb up and away

OneWeb, with help from Arianespace and a Russian Soyuz rocket, lifted six of its satellites from French Guiana on February 27th (at 18.37 local time, 21.37 GMT), and thus began the first step of a work-load that will eventually see 648 active satellites in orbit. Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb’s plan is simple: to circle […]

February 28, 2019By Chris Forrester

SES: Reasons to be cheerful

The SES end of year ‘report card’ is in, and in general the results went down well with the market. As investment bank Jefferies’ Giles Thorne was typical and said in a note to clients that SES had a strong finish to the year. “SES outperformed 4Q/2018 expectations (+4.4 per cent ahead on revenue, +1.1 […]

February 28, 2019

Russia buys into OneWeb

Russian businesses have reportedly bought a majority share of the OneWeb satellite mega-constellation that will operate over Russia via a Russian joint venture. This means, in essence, that OneWeb should now be able to gain access to Russian consumers, the president of a joint-venture partner said. Dmitry Bakanov, DG of JSC Satellite System Gonets, said […]

February 26, 2019By Chris Forrester

Goonhilly partners with Australian Space Agency

Satellite communications innovator and space gateway Goonhilly Earth Station has signed a partnership agreement with the Australian Space Agency to collaborate and create new opportunities in the space economy in Australia, the UK and beyond. The new statement of strategic intent and cooperation aims to help progress the Australian space sector and make the benefits […]

February 26, 2019

Facebook uses ViaSat for Mexico ‘hotspots’

Facebook is investing in California-based Viasat to help with the roll-out of satellite bandwidth for broadband demand. The first step is helping remote connectivity over Mexico. Importantly, there will be an opportunity to expand the project globally, according to a statement issued by the companies. As of last month, the service was available to 1 […]

February 22, 2019By Chris Forrester

Arianespace readies OneWeb craft

Arianespace will conduct its ‘launch readiness review’ on Monday, February 25th, for the six OneWeb satellites currently in its care. Arianespace will use its Soyuz medium-powered rocket from Kourou for the delivery into a circular low Earth orbit at 1,000 km (very close to their target operational orbit). Launch date is likely to be February […]

February 21, 2019By Chris Forrester