Chinese vehicle manufacturing giant Geely Technology Group (and its satellite production division Taizhou Xingkong Zhilian) have been given formal approval to build more than 500 satellites annually. The new enterprise, located in coastal Taizhou, eastern Zhejiang province, will carry out research and development, manufacture core components, test, operate and control satellites, said the company. Equipment […]

Israel-based Gilat Satellite Networks has already delivered successful in-orbit testing of its 5G/Low Earth Orbiting VSAT technology. Now marketed as ‘Aquarius’, the system was on board Telesat’s first pair of test satellites and delivered connectivity as the first ever demo of 5G over a LEO satellite, and then the fastest-ever modem speeds of 1.2 Gb/s […]

Washington DC-based Omnispace is a relatively new name in the satellite industry. It says in its mission statement that it wants to “redefine mobile connectivity for the 21st century”. It has recently raised $60 million (€49.3m) in equity financing. Omnispace says it wants to build a global 5G hybrid mobile network. It has already booked […]

A report from investment bank Exane/BNPP says that today’s various satellite operators are supplying some 2,000 Gb/s of capacity (as at December 31st 2020 and using Northern Sky Research data). The bank suggests that this will grow ten-fold by the end of this year, and 30-fold before the end of this decade. This growth includes

Israel-based satellite technology company Gilat Satellite Networks says it has been awarded a significant contract to supply Solid State power amplifiers for a Low Earth orbit broadband satellite constellation. Gilat says the contract is estimated to be worth more than $50 million and has been awarded to its subsidiary company Wavestream. The announcement does not […]

A rocket launched by New Zealand-based Rocket Lab last week, for its clients OHB Sweden and Thales Alenia, has posed a direct collision risk to satellites in the OneWeb constellation. According to Space Intel Report (SIR), OneWeb is demanding that the satellite be removed from its orbital plane. The satellite, GMS-T, is a protype Low […]

Viasat, the California-based international broadband-by-satellite supplier, and Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar satellite business have both suffered a downgrade by analysts at investment bank Jefferies. In essence, the bank’s report says that Viasat’s revenues are likely to be impacted by the Covid pandemic and the bank has downgraded its revenue forecasts for this trading year. The bank […]

Virgin Orbit has launched its first batch of small satellites on its Virgin Orbit converted jumbo jet (named ‘Cosmic Girl’). The launch took place from Virgin’s Mojave Desert location on January 17th at 18.50 GMT (1.50pm ET) The Virgin Orbit aircraft carried a 21 metre rocket (‘LauncherOne’) under its port (left) wing and deployed 10 […]

European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, says that he wants to propose his concept of a European satellite-based broadband network to the Commission this year. First priority would be to use a European Low Earth orbiting (LEO) public/private enterprise system and use it as a ‘gap filler’ for locations with non or low […]

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 […]