Relativity Space, based in Long Beach, Los Angeles, and very much focused on tapping into the latest production techniques, has raised a further $650 million in funding. This means it has now raised some $2.3 billion in the past 5 years. The cash will help support development of ‘Terran R’ which the company describes as […]
Venture Capital fund Seraphim, which describes itself as the world’s first space VC fund, is planning a London float and is working with banks. The plan, reported initially by Sky News, said that Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan were working with Seraphim on its initial public offering (IPO). Details could be confirmed within the next […]
SpaceX’s Starlink has submitted an application to the FCC for permission to test a smaller antenna for its broadband-by-satellite service. The application asks for a temporary licence to test 5 new user terminals (in California, Colorado, Texas, Utah and Washington State). These new designs will use the same uplink and downlink frequencies as a conventional […]
SpaceX launched a satellite into its transfer orbit on June 6th for US pay-radio broadcaster SiriusXM. The launch, SpaceX’s 18th so far this year, placed the 7500 lbs SiriusXM SXM-8 satellite into a transfer orbit with a lift-off just after midnight at 12.26am EDT (4.26 UTC) from Cape Canaveral. The success follows on from an […]
The risk of satellites bumping into each other is already very real. Now China is joining the low Earth orbit ‘space race’ and planning to launch around 20,000 new craft into orbit. Add this 20,000 to the near-40,000 planned by Elon Musk, another 3300 from Jeff Bezos, around 800 from the UK-backed OneWeb plus dozens […]
In 2020, Elon Musk’s SpaceX organisation bought two retired oil rigs and started transforming one of them into its first floating spaceport. In July 2020, Lone Star Mineral Development LLC, a subsidiary of SpaceX, bought two semi-submersible drilling rigs from Valaris plc for a reported $3.5 million each. Deimos and Phobos (named after two of […]
California-based satellite broadband supplier Viasat has filed an objection to the FCC’s granting of $885 million to SpaceX and its Starlink satellite service. The FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) awarded the sum to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service in December 2021. The award was part of a massive $9.2 billion granted to successful applicants, and […]
Germany says it is prepared to help its citizens living in rural areas to access better Internet services with subsidies. The government’s Transport Ministry says it will subsidise the purchase of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite dishes and similar providers of wireless Internet connections with grants to households worth €500, business daily Handelsblatt reported. The €500 on […]
A slew of objectors is grumbling to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system. We have reported on Viasat’s complaints, but SES, Hughes Network and others are also arguing for the FCC to either suspend or modify its April 27th permission for SpaceX/Starlink to alter their orbital plans. Some of the […]
May 26th saw SpaceX launch another 60 of its Starlink satellites. This means that there are almost 1600 working Starlinks either orbiting or being moved to their target positions. In total Starlink has orbited 1737 satellites although some were test craft and others have failed and been deorbited. The Starlink 28 flight took place at […]