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elon musk

SpaceX puts another 60 Starlinks into orbit

SpaceX has launched one of its Falcon 9 first stage rockets for a record seventh time. Elon Musk’s team now seems unbeatable in terms of the launch, recovery and reuse of its rocket system. SpaceX continuity announcer, Kate Tyce, simply stated that “for the seventh time, this Falcon has landed” as she described a flawless […]

November 25, 2020By Chris Forrester

Musk targets India for Starlink

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service is now in beta-test mode over North America and a few other ‘friends and family’ locations overseas. SpaceX is on record as saying that initially Starlink will focus very much on North America and would probably expand its service overseas via local agents and resellers. However, Musk says that […]

November 20, 2020By Chris Forrester

Euroconsult: Record amount of smaller launches

Euroconsult’s Alexandre Najjar, a senior consultant with the research firm, speaking at its World Satellite Business Week virtual event, said that between January 1st and November 1st this year it had recorded 1029 smaller satellite launches. Adding in larger craft and the total rose to 1079. This is a record and beat the 2019 total […]

November 12, 2020By Chris Forrester

Telesat: “No low-cost LEO antennas in near term”

Elon Musk is inviting consumers in rural America to install his Starlink satellite broadband system, at a cost of $99 a month. They also have to pay $499 for the antenna and its associated kit. However, it is widely accepted that Musk’s SpaceX is swallowing some of the antenna’s costs. As recently reported, the search […]

November 2, 2020By Chris Forrester

Low-cost antennas still years away

A report from Quilty Analytics makes difficult reading for those expecting low-cost (sub-$500) antennas which are vital if the likes of Elon Musk are to make in-roads into the mass consumer market. Quilty’s conclusions are blunt: “The original vision of a low-cost, high-performing electronically steered antenna for commercial markets and consumer applications has not yet […]

October 27, 2020

Bank: SpaceX worth $100bn

Elon Musk is sitting on another gold mine if a valuation from Morgan Stanley is anywhere near accurate. The bank – in a best-case valuation – says that Musk’s SpaceX rocket business and its Starlink satellite subsidiary is worth $100 billion. This is undoubtedly good news for Musk, not only in the core valuation but […]

October 26, 2020

SpaceX gets Canadian licence

Canada’s Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved an application by SpaceX for a high-speed satellite-based service to and from Canada. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, applied for a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) licence in May. The approval for the application was granted a week ago according to a letter to the company posted on […]

October 21, 2020By Chris Forrester

SpaceX’s 15th launch readies, but challenges remain

Building on the success of its 14th launch on October 18th, SpaceX is readying its 15th batch of Starlink craft for a possible launch on October 21st. Currently a launch of the next batch of 60 satellites is scheduled for 12.36pm Florida time dependent on the usual weather and any last-minute technical delays. Subject to […]

October 20, 2020

Musk registers Australian business

Elon Musk’s satellite constellation Starlink has registered a business in Australia. Starlink Australia Pty Ltd has been created out of a pre-registered company – Tibro Australia Pty Ltds. Tibro (‘orbit’ backwards) in Australia was granted a telecommunications licence in Australia (by the Australian Communications & Media Authority) on August 7th. There has been no formal […]

October 13, 2020By Chris Forrester

Concerns over ‘flat panel’ LEO antennas

If there’s one vital component that Elon Musk and the likes of Jeff Bezos as well as Telesat, OneWeb and others need it’s a low-cost consumer friendly phased array flat-panel antenna. Yoel Gat, founder of Gilat Satellite Networks (and now CEO at SatixFy, a designer of flat-panel antennas) says that the dream of a sub-$300 […]

October 9, 2020