Viasat, which only a few weeks ago was celebrating the acquisition of London-based Inmarsat, is suffering a massive crisis of shareholder confidence following news of its problems with its new ViaSat-3 Americas (VS-3A) satellite. Its shares opened on July 13th at $42.98 and closed on the day at $30.74, a net fall of 28.48 per […]

A report from analysts at Bryce Technology says that launching communications satellites dominate the Q1 rocket activity. A total of 869 satellites were launched during Q1. Most of that 869 overall launched were communications craft (81 per cent) and were handled by SpaceX which during Q1, managed 21 launches and 763 actual craft placed into […]

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has approved Iran’s request to place a satellite at 43.5 degrees East. The history behind this Iranian craft goes back to 2016 and deadline after deadline missed. The concept was moving forward in 2017 when Iran signed an agreement with SES and where SES would place a temporary satellite at […]

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb and Connecta Satellite Solutions, a distributor of satellite connectivity solutions to large enterprises and governments in North America, have signed a Distribution Partnership Agreement to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband connectivity across the United States and Caribbean Territories. Connecta will be selling a full suite of OneWeb-powered connectivity […]

Australian telco Telstra has signed an agreement to become what it says makes it the first provider in the world to offer voice-only and voice plus broadband powered by Starlink to rural and remote Telstra customers in Australia. Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said the Starlink agreement was part of Telstra’s T25 strategy commitment to launch […]

The massive Jupiter 3 satellite (also known as EchoStar XXIV) has arrived at Cape Canaveral in readiness for launch. The craft is the largest commercial communications satellite ever built. Built by Maxar Technologies of Palo Alto, California, it was flown in a giant Antonov aircraft to the space coast where it will undergo pre-launch testing […]

Analysts at Quilty Space say that the first half-year of 2023 will achieve six confirmed orders of new geostationary satellites. That would be considered more or less normal except that five of these orders are in the extremely modest sub-1000 kgs class. As at the end of June this translates into just one geostationary craft […]

Decreasing costs of satellite launches and lower capital outlays have enabled several new Small Satellite (SmallSat) operators (such as Swarm Technologies, Kepler, FOSSA Systems, Sateliot, Lacuna Space, HEAD Aerospace Group, and Totum Labs) to enter the satellite Internet-of-Things (IoT) market with low-cost and low-power satellite connectivity offerings. These new entities seek to challenge traditional satellite IoT incumbents, including Inmarsat, Iridium, ORBCOMM, and Globalstar, to provide a […]

The ITU’s Radio Regulations Board (RRB) has approved a ‘milestone waiver’ for Rivada Space and its first batch of 300 satellites. This decision removes a major worry for Rivada which – had the waiver not been granted – would have near-scuppered the Ka-band project. The overall system calls for two batches each of 300 satellites. […]

Low Earth orbit (LEO) communications network OneWeb is expanding its connectivity services throughout Europe and the majority of the United States as it scales toward global service. Satellite powered connectivity through OneWeb is now reaching regions above the latitude of 35 degrees north. This expansion became active first at the end of May 2023, adding […]