On May 16 a Proton rocket suffered a catastrophic loss of its cargo, an expensive ($217 million) communications satellite. The disaster meant that all Proton flights were suspended while a Failure Review Board studied the reasons behind the loss. International Launch Services (ILS), while not being responsible for the lost Russian satellite, has suffered the […]
Eutelsat Communications has unveiled its plans at the CommunicAsia exhibition in Singapore for significantly scaling up its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. The company is embarking on a new triple mission satellite programme that will support sustained demand for capacity for data, fixed and mobile broadband services as well as video. The satellite will also […]
Newtec announced today that Thaicom PLC, a leading Asian satellite operator, has installed Newtec technology (M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulators) on the platform of Thaicom-6, enabling its satellite to provide TV Broadcasting services in both C-band and Ku-band to serve customers with the best value and viewing experience. More than 30 Newtec M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulators […]
Satellite operator SES’s new CEO, Karim Michel Sabbagh, in a major speech at the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum in Singapore, said that despite pay-TV DTH being challenged in some markets by IP-based and OTT supply of programming, there remained many reasons to be optimistic (about satellite). “The consumer is jumping into 4K,” he said. “Simulcasting […]
Sky News is reporting that Google is in talks to take a stake in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space rocket venture. Recently it emerged that Google is developing plans to launch between 180 and 360 of its own Low Earth Orbiting satellites to reach those parts of the planet under-served by broadband. A stake […]
SES Broadband Services (SBBS) and its subsidiary Astra Connect has won a major French contract to hook up almost 9000 to a broadband service via the French ‘Connected Schools’ project. The scheme calls for broadband delivery, by Ka-band satellite, to those schools around the country which do not have adequate access to fibre or broadband […]
Inmarsat, the mobile satellite services operator, has announced its decision to deploy an integrated telecommunications network to deliver aviation passenger connectivity services on a EU-wide basis. To achieve this ambition, Inmarsat confirms its order for a new S-band satellite, to be called Europasat, and expects to complement this satellite with a fully integrated air-to-ground network […]
Eutelsat launched its massive Ka-Sat craft back in December 2010, and it is fair to say that the broadband and data satellite took some time to make any real progress. Now, the 6-tonne satellite is making steady – and more valuable – progress. The highly complicated craft focuses its 82 spot-beams onto tightly targeted regions […]
Parts of a Russian satellite appear to have crashed into the Australian bush in Queensland) late on May 15th following its lift-off from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The giant Proton rocket itself failed after nine minutes and crashed into an uninhabited part of the countryside downrange from the Kazakhstan launch site. But it would seem the […]
On April 28th we reported that certain commercial satellite launches were under threat of being cancelled because of the growing crisis with Russia in regard to the political situation in the Ukraine. In that story we specifically mentioned the upcoming launches of SES’s Astra 2G craft, plus a pair of satellites for London-based Inmarsat as […]