Advanced Television

spacex

Who is behind Project Kraken?

Space Florida, a State-backed unit designed to build on Florida’s already hugely successful space-related activity, is in contact with Project Kraken – a mystery space business that could be looking to locate in or near Florida’s famous Space Coast. Amazon has confirmed that its Project Kuiper mega-constellation of 3,200 satellites have anything to do with […]

March 22, 2021

SpaceX sets rocket booster record

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster made its 9th flight on March 14th (at 06.01 Florida time, 10.01 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center. This 9th use of the same booster is another record-breaking achievement for the SpaceX and Starlink teams. Another 60 Starlink satellites were placed into orbit on this, the 22nd batch of […]

March 15, 2021By Chris Forrester

SpaceX now has 1200 Starlinks in orbit

SpaceX successfully launched another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on March 11th, and brought back the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage to a landing on the ‘Just Read the Instructions’ floating barge. Astronomer and close observer of Starlink activity Jonathan McDowell says 1265 of the broadband satellites have been launched in total and 1200 are […]

March 12, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bank reacts to SpaceX broadband-to-vehicles plan

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is seeking permission to launch its Starlink broadband-by-satellite service to moving vehicles. Musk, in a Tweet, stressed that Starlink was not targeting Tesla or other cars, but aircraft, ships, large trucks and RVs; “Our terminal is much too big [for cars]” he said. Sami Kassab, satellite analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, said […]

March 10, 2021

SpaceX asks FCC for sat-links to vehicles

SpaceX, which is moving ahead with its broadband-by-satellite service, is asking the FCC for permission to beam signals to moving vehicles, vessels and aircraft. If granted, the SpaceX services will be ‘blanket licensed’ under the FCC’s existing ‘Earth Stations in Motion’ rules and be capable of handling internet services to any moving vehicle including cars […]

March 9, 2021By Chris Forrester

Starlink success despite Starship glitch

A fully-fledged rocket explosion occurred a few seconds after apparently landing flawlessly at Elon Musk’s Texas facility on March 3rd. At his Florida launch site, meanwhile, all went like clockwork with 60 new Starlink satellites launched with 100 per cent mission success. The launch on March 4th was something of a worry given that it […]

March 5, 2021By Chris Forrester

SpaceX explains Feb 15 landing failure

SpaceX says its February 15th failure to correctly return its Falcon 9 booster to its landing barge was down to a hole at the top of one of the Merlin engines. Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of human spaceflight, speaking March 1st at a NASA news conference, said the hole permitted hot gas into the engine […]

March 3, 2021By Chris Forrester

Bezos losing out to Musk in mega-satellite plan?

Amazon owner Jeff Bezos looks like suffering delays to his Project Kuiper broadband-by-satellite mega-constellation. Confirmed delays in the availability of his Blue Origin launch rocket could also affect Eutelsat which had reserved a flight on the rocket for one of its satellites. Bezos is backing the Blue Origin rocket launching system and they have delayed […]

March 2, 2021

Bezos/Musk alumni create new rocket business

Stoke-Space Technologies with a C-level staff list that includes some hirings from Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk-backed businesses Blue Origin and SpaceX, has raised $9.1 million seed capital for its development work on a rocket’s important second stage. Musk’s SpaceX has solved (usually) the task of getting a rocket’s first stage back to Earth, and […]

March 1, 2021By Chris Forrester

SpaceX delays latest Starlink

An aborted take-off, barely 1 minute before launch late on February 28th for 60 Starlink broadband satellites is being rescheduled for 8.15pm (Florida time) today (March 1st). This is not the first delay for this particular batch of Starlinks. The Falcon 9 rocket was originally slated to fly earlier in February but certain issues with […]

March 1, 2021By Chris Forrester