Despite Virgin Orbit’s setback in Cornwall, Scotland’s SaxaVord Spaceport is moving rapidly ahead with its own plans. SaxaVord is materially different to Cornwall’s Newquay spaceport in that it is planning to loft conventional rockets vertically and directly into orbit from its launch pad. SaxaVord has announced a partnership with Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA). This partnership […]
Virgin Orbit has reported that its Cosmic Girl launch from Cornwall on January 9th “ultimately fell short of reaching its target orbit”. The company admitted that the effort was not a moment to remember. Investors shared the sentiment and sent Virgin Orbit Holdings share price on the Nasdaq exchange crashing down 22 per cent on […]
Formalising its November 2022 announcement, the Federal Communications Commission has released an Order adopting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s plan to modernise the FCC by establishing a Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs. The planned reorganisation is designed better to support the needs of the growing satellite industry, promote long-term technical capacity at the FCC, and […]
Paris-based Euroconsult has released its latest market overview which states that its assessment of the value of the Space Economy last year was $424 billion (€394.8bn), and expects this to grow to $100 billion annually by 2031. “The fast growing commercial space sector enjoyed another year of significant growth and productivity during 2022, but did […]
Qualcomm used the CES show in Las Vegas to showcase its Snapdragon chip especially engineered for satellite smartphone use. Snapdragon Satellite is a two-way satellite messaging service that will be available on “next-generation premium Android smartphones”. Its first announced customers are a partnership with satellite operator Iridium and a “collaboration” with Garmin. Snapdragon Satellite will […]
Satellite operator SES says its latest craft, SES-20, has arrived on station at 103 degrees West and is providing back-up protections as an in-orbit spare for its US customers and in particular cable operators who use the location for their cable head-ends. SES-20 is part of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) obligation to clear a […]
Analysts at Northern Sky Research (NSR), in a report which looks at prospects for the space industry in 2023, says that 2022 was already big for direct satellite-to-devices and that 2023 will be “even bigger”. Lluc Palerm, NSR Principal Analyst, says the satellite-to-device market saw a rush of announcements last year by the likes of […]
The loss of a valuable Vega-C rocket and two Airbus satellites (valued at some €200 million) has resulted in Arianespace ordering an independent inquiry commission. An Arianespace statement said they and the European Space Agency (ESA) immediately decided to appoint an independent inquiry commission. “This commission is tasked with analysing the reasons for the failure […]
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched a proceeding to streamline its review processes for satellite applications. As the space economy booms, the agency will look further to update its rules and processes to ensure that its critical review responsibilities are met as efficiently and effectively as possible. In recent years, the Commission says […]
Starlink, the SpaceX broadband by satellite service, has announced it has reached 1 million subscribers. “Starlink now has more than 1,000,000 active subscribers — thank you to all customers and members of the Starlink team who contributed to this milestone,” Starlink said in a Tweet on the evening of December 19th. This is a major […]