Advanced Television

Jeff Bezos

China wants 13,000 satellites

Local reports seem to confirm China’s intentions to build and launch 13,000 low Earth orbiting satellites. The mega-constellation would rival the existing Starlink system from SpaceX, the UK and India-backed OneWeb scheme and a planned similar constellation from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) has called […]

January 31, 2022By Chris Forrester

Blue Origin acquires Honeybee Robotics

Honeybee Robotics is to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Origin. A deal between Honeybee’s parent organisation, Ensign-Bickford Industries, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, is expected to close in mid-February. Financial terms were not disclosed. Since 1983, Honeybee has delivered more than 1,000 advanced projects to government and industrial customers in the spacecraft, planetary […]

January 28, 2022By Chris Forrester

Arianespace “fully reusable by 2030”

ArianeGroup Chief Executive André-Hubert Roussel has said the Ariane family of rocket launchers would be fully reusable starting by the end of this decade. His comments follow on from French Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire who has been highly critical of the Arianespace’s current use of non-reusable rockets, including the giant Ariane 5 and smaller […]

January 25, 2022

Arianespace revenues up 30%

Europe’s Arianespace has reported a 30 per cent increase in revenues for 2021 having complete 15 successful launches during the year. Arianespace says it saw revenues of €1.25 billion last year and says it will likely break-even in trading terms once the year’s accounts are complete. The launch company now operates from three spaceports: its […]

January 10, 2022By Chris Forrester

Mowry leaves Blue Origin for Voyager

Clayton Mowry has left Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin operation to join Voyager Space as Chief Revenue Officer. Mowry’s credentials include a 15-year spell at Arianespace as chairman and President of the US division. Most recently, he served as VP/Global Sales at Blue Origin where he led global sales, marketing and customer experience for […]

December 21, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bezos wants extra 4,538 satellites

Jeff Bezos already has FCC permission to launch 3236 low Earth orbiting satellites in his Project Kuiper. On November 4th his Kuiper team asked the FCC for permission to add another 4538 satellites to take the toral to 7774. “Kuiper Systems LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, requests FCC authority to launch and operate […]

November 8, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bezos to launch first Kuiper satellites in 2022

Jeff Bezos and his Project Kuiper team will launch the first test satellites later in 2022, ahead of his planned 3,236 low Earth orbiting broadband constellation. Project Kuiper will use rocket company ABL Systems to launch the two satellites (named KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2) and not Bezos’s own Blue Origin rockets. The launches will take place […]

November 2, 2021By Chris Forrester

Blue Origin to help build space station

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company is putting cash into a project to build a commercial space station. Other partners in the project include Sierra Space and Boeing. In essence, the project has in mind an orbiting ‘business park’ for all manner of commercial concepts including space tourism. The project’s build plan talks about having […]

October 28, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bank: Musk soon a trillionaire

Tesla has helped entrepreneur Elon Musk become one of the two richest men on the planet, and frequently holding the top spot over Amazon’s Jeff Bezos depending on stock market valuations. A report from analysts at Morgan Stanley suggests that when SpaceX truly gets into gear with its Starlink broadband service as well as greater […]

October 25, 2021By Chris Forrester

Amazon complains to FCC about SpaceX

September 8th saw Amazon fire off another salvo to the FCC with a list of complaints about SpaceX and also citing a WSJ comment that Elon Musk wages a “war on regulators” and that Musk allegedly breaks the rules and endangers people. The Amazon letter to the FCC (and from its subsidiary Kuiper Systems) is […]

September 10, 2021