The planet’s two richest individuals, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are involved in a bitter slanging match over their satellite mega-constellations. Their rival businesses, SpaceX and Project Kuiper, have lodged tit-for-tat almost daily filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with SpaceX saying that Amazon’s Kuiper is guilty of “stifling competition”. SpaceX is already asking […]
SpaceX launched 143 satellites on one rocket on January 24th including 10 of its own Starlink craft. The previous record was held by an Indian launch of 104 satellites in 2017. The impressive cargo formed SpaceX’s ‘Transporter-1’ mission, and while around 133 of the satellites were small, so-called cube-sats and ‘micro-sats’ it was nevertheless an […]
SpaceX launched another 60 of its Starlink satellites into orbit on January 20th at 08.02am Florida time (13.02 GMT). It was the 17th mission for the Starlink team and went flawlessly. It is also the first launch for Starlink this year, but it is expected that another launch of 10 satellites will follow over the […]
Reports out of Moscow state that Russia’s lower house of parliament (Duma) has legislated penalties for any citizen using Elon Musk’s Starlink or the UK/India-backed OneWeb low Earth orbiting satellite systems. Neither company currently has users in Russia. Russia is reportedly working on ‘Sphere’ (Сфера, in Russian), its own mega-constellation of satellites. But the probable […]
Currently neither SES, Eutelsat nor Hispasat, Europe’s three major satellite operators, have backed low Earth orbiting (LEO) systems with consumer facing broadband services. But the three say they are prepared to co-invest in the European Commission’s suggestion for an EU-wide LEO system. The European Commission is backing the concept of a dedicated LEO system for […]
Last week Elon Musk’s SpaceX has asked the FCC for permission to launch 10 Starlink satellites into a polar orbit – tentatively on January 14th. The FCC has granted permission, but with some restrictions. The FCC, said the launch can go ahead to a height of 560 kms and with an inclination of 97.6 degrees […]
A comprehensive study of the world’s 2020 space activities from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell (of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics) suggests that there are some questions over the in-orbit reliability of Elon Musk’s Starlink project. The report examines and itemises the assorted SpaceX launches, each of which have been remarkably successful in their ability to place […]
A Falcon 9 rocket completed a textbook launch of Turksat 5A from Cape Canaveral on January 7th. Turksat 5A will use its electric thrusters to lift itself to its designated geostationary orbit, a process which will take around 4 months. The satellite carries 42 transponders and occupy an orbital slot at 31 degrees East. Speaking […]
There were a few tense moments immediately prior to the launch of the giant Soyuz rocket at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome when the countdown clock went past the ‘3-2.1-Zero’ command, but a few seconds later, the engines burst into life and the 36-satellite payload for OneWeb launched. Some four hours after its 12.26pm (GMT) launch and […]
SpaceX is reportedly planning another cash-raising round for investors. It last raised money ($1.9 billion) in August and was valued at the time as $36 billion. Bloomberg is suggesting that while talks are at an early stage, the end result could be that SpaceX would have a value of some $92 billion. The cash should […]