February 19th saw the New Zealand-based Rocket Lab, founded by Sir Peter Beck, launch its 60th Electron mission. The company specialises in launching smaller satellites, and its record to date is extraordinarily impressive. Electron is already the world’s most frequently launched small rocket annually. “Now we’re making it the world’s first reusable orbital small rocket […]
A lawsuit brought by Viasat against the US Space Development Agency (SDA) has opened the possibility of Viasat winning a 10 satellite contract for the US Air Force. The Air Force has agreed to revoke a contract awarded to Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems that’s worth $254 million (€243.3m). Tyvak is a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin. The […]
It’s not been a good month for European satellite operators. Recent weeks have seen Paris-based Eutelsat suffer negative comments and a much-depressed share price. Now it is Luxembourg’s SES which is hurting. Ratings agency Moody’s cut its outlook on SES to “negative” (from “stable”) and that the operator’s long-term debt (rated Baa3) would be “under […]
South Africa has suspended talks over licensing SpaceX’s Starlink service in the country because of tensions with the Donald Trump administration in the US. A Bloomberg report says that “negotiators plan to wait until the dispute between the US and South Africa calm down, with the intention to return to a possible deal at a […]
Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), which trades as ‘Aussie Broadband’, currently uses geostationary satellites to beam broadband signals to businesses, government and private individual across Australia, says it could switch from geostationary to low Earth (LEO) orbiting satellites. Currently NBN uses capacity (Sky Muster) from two craft at 140 and 145 degrees East. Local reports […]
Analysts at investment bank BNP Paribas have issued their thoughts on satellite operator Eutelsat’s current predicament and have advised clients that their rating on the Paris-based business is ‘underperform’ as far as shareholders are concerned. But worse, in that the bank’s Sami Kassab, in the past a supporter of satellite stocks, has issued a target […]
Globalstar, last week, ordered 50 satellites from Canada’s MDA Space. It has now been revealed that the C$1.1 billion (€0.74bn) order reflects a request made to the FCC on February 14th for authorisation for Globalstar’s C-3 System, which is a 48-satellite Low Earth orbiting system which complements its Gen3 satellites (and filed with the ITU […]
Gogo Business Aviation|Satcom Direct has signed a second three-year preferred supplier agreement with Luxaviation Group, continuing the relationship first forged between the business aviation operator and Satcom Direct (SD) in 2021. The new deal includes access to Gogo Galileo phased array antennas and its North American Air-to-Ground connectivity network, following the recent transaction combining the […]
Within minutes of Eutelsat releasing its half-yearly results on February 14th a major sell-off by shareholders occurred, and drove Eutelsat’s share price down to another ‘all time low’ of just €1.39 a share, and a 11.4 per cent fall on the day. A week earlier they were trading at about €1.80. A month ago, they […]
Eva Berneke, CEO at Eutelsat, has unveiled the operator’s financial results. Eutelsat’s once-reliable Video division revenues fell 6.4 per cent (€309.2 million) but each of the other verticals were in solid territory. Total revenues for the First Half of FY 2024-25 stood at €606.2 million, up by 5.9 per cent on a reported basis. Revenues […]