Advanced Television

elon musk

SpaceX success for Turksat 5A

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 […]

January 8, 2021By Chris Forrester

OneWeb adds 36, faces UK criticism

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 […]

December 21, 2020By Chris Forrester

SpaceX wants extra finance

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 […]

December 17, 2020

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