Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia has succeeded in gaining regulatory approval for a global broadband-by-satellite constellation. The project – called Sphere – already has one satellite in orbit, a ”demonstration” SkyF-D craft, launched on October 22nd. Russian Space Agency Roscosmos is backing the scheme, and the Russian government has plans to invest some […]
The EU has demanded that Eutelsat and SES curtail their carriage of Russian channels. But the demands, which affect Eutelsat more than SES, are extremely tough to resolve. Almost all broadcasters have taken down RT, the former Russia Today, following on from decisions by the likes of the UK’s media regulator Ofcom. Eutelsat has also […]
Thirty-nine members of the European parliament have written to the EU’s top legal officials demanding that Europe’s two giant satellite operators immediately take down Russian-backed channels from their portfolios of broadcasts. Various EU officials have already complained about Eutelsat’s carriage of Russian channels. Eutelsat has said it wants to be politically neutral and in addition […]
Russia is working on Skif, the name of a proposed satellite constellation to rival the likes of Elon Musk’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper. Russia’s TASS news agency reports that Skif is planned to commence deployment around the planet in 2025. Russia’s Skif satellite constellation is being developed to provide cheap and high-speed internet […]
Andrus Ansip, the former European Commission’s vice president, has again criticised satellite operator Eutelsat for not ceasing its relationship with Russia. Ansip, also a former prime minister of Estonia, is accusing Eutelsat of collaborating with Russia. Ansip was following up his previous October 18th condemnation of Eutelsat. This time he has been unequivocal in his […]
Eve Berneke, CEO at Eutelsat, cannot be blamed for attempting to look forward as she seeks to re-establish the satellite operator into a new beast which will offer both geostationary and low Earth orbit connectivity once its merger with OneWeb happens. But the market clearly doesn’t yet totally share her view that ‘jam tomorrow’ is […]
Eutelsat has released its Consolidated Financial Statement saying that, as at June 30th (the end of its financial year), some 6.7 per cent of its revenues were “exposed” to Russian customers. “The Group had no significant exposure to Ukraine in terms of revenues. The Group also leases capacity on four satellites owned by the Russian […]
OneWeb has reportedly reached an agreement with Arianespace over the cancelled Russian launches of OneWeb’s satellites. The cancellation came about because of the Russian war with Ukraine, and which impacted OneWeb. However, the actual launch contract was between OneWeb and Arianespace, and it was Arianespace which held the relationship with Russia. Russia currently is holding […]
Constellation operator OneWeb, itself in the process of merging with Paris-based Eutelsat, has booked a $229 million (€230.9m) impairment charge caused by the ending of its six-launch contract with Russia’s Soyuz rockets because of “geo-political” problems. OneWeb has also seen 36 of its costly satellites stuck at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and now unlikely to be […]
Wars and international conflicts are increasingly targeting orbiting satellites, says a report from Aerospace Corp. The report says that as space-based services become ever more integrated with life and society on Earth, the international community will have to consider how commercial actors affect and are affected by crisis and conflict in space. Unfortunately, there are […]