Barely a fortnight since SpaceX’s last batch of 60 Starlink satellites were launched (on March 11th) a Falcon 9 rocket has placed another batch of 60 satellites into orbit. The latest launch occurred at 08.28 GMT (04.28 ET) on March 24th from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Later the Falcon 9 first […]
Investment bank analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that the news that Elon Musk has asked the FCC for permission to expand its Starlink broadband-by-satellite system to moving vehicles (trucks/RVs, aircraft and ships) has not only major implications for the auto industry, but the “topic appears to be moving even faster than we had anticipated”. Last […]
SpaceX successfully launched another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on March 11th, and brought back the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage to a landing on the ‘Just Read the Instructions’ floating barge. Astronomer and close observer of Starlink activity Jonathan McDowell says 1265 of the broadband satellites have been launched in total and 1200 are […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is seeking permission to launch its Starlink broadband-by-satellite service to moving vehicles. Musk, in a Tweet, stressed that Starlink was not targeting Tesla or other cars, but aircraft, ships, large trucks and RVs; “Our terminal is much too big [for cars]” he said. Sami Kassab, satellite analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, said […]
A fully-fledged rocket explosion occurred a few seconds after apparently landing flawlessly at Elon Musk’s Texas facility on March 3rd. At his Florida launch site, meanwhile, all went like clockwork with 60 new Starlink satellites launched with 100 per cent mission success. The launch on March 4th was something of a worry given that it […]
Amazon owner Jeff Bezos looks like suffering delays to his Project Kuiper broadband-by-satellite mega-constellation. Confirmed delays in the availability of his Blue Origin launch rocket could also affect Eutelsat which had reserved a flight on the rocket for one of its satellites. Bezos is backing the Blue Origin rocket launching system and they have delayed […]
Researchers at Quilty Analytics have carried out a running total of SpaceX’s fund-raising exercises and estimate that the Elon Musk-backed business has raised around $6 billion (€4.9bn) since the announcement of its – then proposed – Starlink broadband-by-satellite service in 2015. Quilty says its calculations show some $6.54 billion, not including debt financing and the […]
SpaceX has wrapped a fundraising round of a reported $850 million (€704.4bn) to help pay for his new Starlink launches and development work on his Starship/Mars project. CNBC reports that the new cash was generated by the sale of shares at an impressive $419.99 per share and thus giving the privately held business a value […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite system has added South Africa as a target market. South Africa’s media and telecoms regulator ICASA (Independent Communication Authority of South Africa) confirming that SpaceX is in discussion with the reguklator about obtaining a licence to operate in the country. To operate in South Africa and to provide its satellite-based internet […]
Early on February 16th, SpaceX lifted another batch of 60 Starlink satellites from Launch pad 40 at Kennedy Space Center, but did not successfully land the booster rocket. The booster landed in the Atlantic close to its target barge some 400 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral. This was the first time since March 2020 that […]