June 30th saw a routine SpaceX launch lifting 88 smaller satellites into orbit on its Transporter-2 special flight. The Falcon 9 rocket booster landed some 10 minutes later back onto its concrete launch pad. It was yet another success for the Elon Musk concept of reusable rockets. But the news was somewhat overshadowed by a […]
Elon Musk, writing on Twitter on June 25th, said that all 72 orbital planes – that is the route his Starlink satellites take when circling the planet – will be active in August. He added that global coverage will then be activated except for the polar regions which will take a further six months. This […]
Mobile Viewpoint, a Dutch based developer and world leading manufacturer of live streaming technology solutions, has announced the integration of Starlink as part of their offerings for network connection. With the launch of new low orbit satellites for global network coverage by the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon’s Kuiper, the outlook for remote […]
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has criticised Elon Musk’s SpaceX over a test launch of a giant Starship rocket (Flight SN8) on December 9th 2020. The FAA says SpaceX ignored two warnings that its official issued software had shown up and that SpaceX was under formal investigation over how it responded to the FAA warning […]
California-based broadband satellite operator has confirmed that it is seeking Indian licences for its geostationary services. India’s Economic Times quotes a Viasat spokesperson saying: “We have filed applications with the Indian government and relevant agencies, seeking authority to use two of our Ka-band ViaSat-3 satellites – currently under construction – to serve India, and we […]
SpaceX is reportedly in talks with several airlines about them utilising its Starlink broadband satellite system on their aircraft. Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s VP of Starlink and commercial sales, told a panel at the Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit on June 9th that Starlink was in talks with several airlines and had carried out “some” demonstrations. Starlink […]
SpaceX launched a satellite into its transfer orbit on June 6th for US pay-radio broadcaster SiriusXM. The launch, SpaceX’s 18th so far this year, placed the 7500 lbs SiriusXM SXM-8 satellite into a transfer orbit with a lift-off just after midnight at 12.26am EDT (4.26 UTC) from Cape Canaveral. The success follows on from an […]
In 2020, Elon Musk’s SpaceX organisation bought two retired oil rigs and started transforming one of them into its first floating spaceport. In July 2020, Lone Star Mineral Development LLC, a subsidiary of SpaceX, bought two semi-submersible drilling rigs from Valaris plc for a reported $3.5 million each. Deimos and Phobos (named after two of […]
Germany says it is prepared to help its citizens living in rural areas to access better Internet services with subsidies. The government’s Transport Ministry says it will subsidise the purchase of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite dishes and similar providers of wireless Internet connections with grants to households worth €500, business daily Handelsblatt reported. The €500 on […]
A slew of objectors is grumbling to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system. We have reported on Viasat’s complaints, but SES, Hughes Network and others are also arguing for the FCC to either suspend or modify its April 27th permission for SpaceX/Starlink to alter their orbital plans. Some of the […]