Azerbaijan’s ministry of transport & communications has confirmed that the country wants another satellite. Azerbaijan already operates two satellites, Azerspace-1 and 2. “Currently, intensive work is underway to use the resources of Azerspace-1, Azerspace-2, and Azersky satellites for more active commercial purposes,” local reports quote the ministry as saying. “At the same time, marketing research […]
At the start of August, Maxar Technologies received an order from pay-radio broadcaster SiriusXM for a new satellite, SXM-9. Now Maxar has confirmed another satellite order for SiriusXM, its SXM-10 craft. “Maxar has been manufacturing communications satellites for SiriusXM for decades, and we’re proud to continue this relationship for both SXM-9 and SXM-10,” said Chris […]
A submission from a landowner who objected to the establishment of a rocket launch site in the Sutherland (Scotland) Highlands & Islands failed, and permission has now been given for the site’s spaceport development to go ahead. Scotland’s Court of Session in Edinburgh, in a judicial review, denied the application by billionaire landowner (and Scotland’s […]
Canada-based satellite component supplier MDA reports it is actively bidding on supplying several mega-constellations of satellites in addition to the contracts it has in place with Telesat’s broadband-by-satellite Lightspeed project and OneWeb. MDA’s CEO Mike Greenley says the company expects to see revenues of some C$800 million (€547.3m) from its Lightspeed contracts between this year […]
On August 14th, astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who’s based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tweeted that a small piece of a Russian rocket (officially Object 48078, 1996051Q) had hit a Chinese satellite (Yunhai 1-02) which was damaged on impact. The Russian Zenit-2 rocket launched back in September 1996 and […]
Thailand’s attempt to encourage more bidders for the nation’s orbital satellite slots has failed. TC Space Connect, a subsidiary of existing incumbent Thaicom, is again the sole bidder. National Telecom (NT) has not proceeded with a bid. The official auction is due to be held on August 28th. The existing satellite concession for Thaicom ends […]
Luxembourg is already well-known for space and satellite activity. As well as being the home for satellite giant SES Astra, it is also the formal domicile for SES’s arch-rival Intelsat (although Intelsat is actually run from Washington, DC). Now Spacety Luxembourg is hoping to emulate its established colleagues. Italy-based T4i and Spacety Luxembourg have signed […]
Specialists of the Ops Dept of the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) orbital constellation have completed the translation of the Express-AM33 satellite from the orbital position of 96.5° E to the 11° W slot. To translate the Express-AM33 to the required position, the satellite had made 120 orbits around the Earth at an altitude of […]
SiriusXM has ordered a new satellite, SXM-9, from Maxar Technologies. The SXM-9 satellite will be based on Maxar’s 1300-class platform and built at the company’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California. It is expected that SXM-9 will launch in 2024. Maxar has been building satellites for SiriusXM since 2000, which includes the first-generation Sirius satellites […]
Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat has teamed with ThinKom Solutions to collaborate on the development of antennas for Telesat’s upcoming Lightspeed fleet of Low Earth Orbiting broadband satellites. Telesat is talking up downlink speeds of 830 Mb/s. The two companies will work together to facilitate operations of the ThinKom Ka2517 antennas on the fully integrated 298 […]