China already has a total of 44 GPS satellites in orbit (at the end of 2023), known as the Beidou constellation. The country’s China Satellite Navigation System Management Office (CNSO) has explained how this existing system will be augmented. According to Xinhua News Agency, CNSO says that by the end of 2025 it will have […]

Some 24 years ago Telesat’s Anik F1 was launched. It has now been retired to a safe ‘graveyard’ orbit a few hundred kilometres above the normal geostationary arc. When Canada’s Anik F1 was sent into space in November 2000, it was the most powerful communications satellite ever built. Now this satellite is in its final […]

The UK space sector is enjoying impressive progress and is said to be expanding faster than the UK economy. A report from Heligan Group forecasts that M&A activity will continue to grow in 2025 due to increasing government funding, the falling cost of launches, and the adoption of new technologies, such as satellite-based quantum key […]

Direct-to-Smartphone satellite communications have been approved – with some conditions – by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for SpaceX. This permission applies to US consumers using T-Mobile’s services. The approval was granted on November 26th and covers 7,500 of SpaceX’s Second generation Starlink satellites which will operate at lower orbits (Very Low Earth Orbits, VLEO), […]

Deutsche Telekom, Qualcomm and Skylo have announced the successful completion of an end-to-end trial of SMS send and receipt over GEO satellite. It is the first time in Europe that an operator’s terrestrial mobile network has been integrated into a satellite network to enable texting based on the 3GPP Release 17 specifications for Direct-to-Handset (D2H) […]

Rivada Space Networks is still working with key supplier Terran Orbital (now owned by Lockheed Martin) according to the company. Rivada says that its launch orders with SpaceX, while not set in terms of specific final launch dates, are still valid and in place. Rivada has an initial 300 satellite contract with Terran Orbital although […]

The Mobile Satellite Services Association (MSSA) has announced its new Associate Membership in the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). MSSA will participate in CITEL’s Permanent Consultative Committees, PCC.I (Telecommunications/ICT) and PCC.II (Radiocommunications), reinforcing its commitment to advancing regulatory engagement and innovation in the satellite and telecommunications sectors across the Americas. By joining CITEL as an Associate […]

The new Donald Trump administration, and a new chair at the FCC (Brendon Carr), is increasingly expected to permit operators such as Starlink and AST SpaceMobile to begin transmitting and receiving calls direct-to-devices and including consumer smartphones. As Armand Musey (partner at consultancy Summit Ridge Group) suggested during the recent 13th Americas Spectrum Management Conference […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) has for a couple of years been talking about alternative launch contractors. It has now fleshed out its plans. It is commissioning a study to detail the potential development of a reusable rocket capable of delivering 60 tonnes to low Earth orbit. A tender document for open competition published on […]

Boca Raton-based satellite builder Terran Orbital, now owned by Lockheed Martin, is facing a Class Action from investors alleging they were misled as the company’s status before the sale. Investors allege that Lockheed originally offered $1 per share for Terran, the final deal price was struck at 25 cents and shareholders are now suing Terran […]