Last week Germany expressed in no uncertain terms its unhappiness over the EU-backed IRIS² Low Earth Orbiting system which would give Europe’s governments a secure, encrypted satellite fleet and an alternate to Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband system. (IRIS² Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite). The German government strongly opposes IRIS² due to its […]

Fitch Ratings has given Intelsat SA (and sister company Intelsat Jackson Holdings) a ‘Rating Watch Positive’ (RWP) and ‘Credit Positive’ overview and helped by the incoming buyer SES and its stronger financial and credit profile. The RWP reflects Fitch’s expectations that SES SA’s acquisition of Intelsat, announced on April 30th, will be a credit positive, […]

Gilat Satellite Networks, a specialist in satellite networking technology, solutions and services, has announced that its SkyEdge IV platform is enabling SES’s O3b mPower System to deliver high-performance connectivity services. SkyEdge IV is Gilat’s next-generation multi-service platform. It is the industry’s first VSAT platform enabling multi-orbit operations supporting service deployment utilising MEO and GEO Very […]

Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has sent the first stage of its rocket (RFA-ONE) to its Scottish launch site at SaxaVord in the Shetland Islands in readiness for its first ‘hot fire’ test. The Augsburg, Germany-based aerospace business is very much focussed on building high-performance but low-cost rockets “in order to make space more accessible than […]

Later today [May 2nd], a SpaceX rocket will launch another 23 Starlink satellites from a Florida launch pad. It follows on from a Falcon 9 launch on April 28th which placed another batch of 23 Starlink broadband satellites into their transfer orbits. That launch took the total Starlinks launched to 6,304, of which 5,896 are […]

Eutelsat has announced that Kevin Steen has been appointed by the Eutelsat America Corp (EAC) Board of Directors to the position of President and CEO of EAC. He will also continue his existing role as President and CEO of OneWeb Technologies (OWT). EAC and OWT completed their combination earlier this year and will go to […]

In a surprise announcement, SES has announced it is buying rival Intelsat with a cash payment of $3.1 billion (€2.9bn). In a press statement, SES said: “The combination will create a stronger multi-orbit operator with greater coverage, improved resiliency, expanded suite of solutions, enhanced resources to profitably invest in innovation, and benefit from the collective […]

Europe’s all-new Ariane 6 rocket is being assembled ready for a summer test launch. Its predecessor Ariane 5 rocket flew its last flight in July 2023. The new rocket should have been ready to seamlessly take over launch duties for the European Space Agency (ESA) and other commercial clients. However, Ariane 6 is late. Very […]

There’s a battle taking place for satellite-based direct-to-cellular services. AST SpaceMobile is one such player, while the likes of Globalstar (linked with Apple) and Starlink (linked with T-Mobile and others) are also looking to tap into what they all suggest is a potentially large market for connectivity. However, it is Lynk Global, based in Virginia, […]

Eutelsat has invested in a new space-based venture fund managed by Seraphim Space Ventures. Eutelsat joins Japan’s SkyPerfect JSAT along with Japanese telco NEC in the new fund. The fund (Seraphim SSV II) says it will be focused on investing in Seed and Series A-stage companies. Seraphim said the SSV II fund aims to build […]