SpaceX carried its 25th mission of the year into orbit on Sunday December 13th at 17.30pm GMT. The client is pay-radio operator SiriusXM (SXM-7). The original scheduled launch was for Friday December 11th but was scrubbed because of technical issues. The satellite was built for SiriusXM by Maxar Technologies. It is one of two satellites […]
SpaceX has won a portion of the US government’s scheme to provide satellite-based broadband access to rural users. The pay-out, which totals $885.5 million, is part of the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). SpaceX, and other non-terrestrial suppliers, had previously complained that they were being excluded from being considered. In total the FCC has […]
SpaceX has launched one of its Falcon 9 first stage rockets for a record seventh time. Elon Musk’s team now seems unbeatable in terms of the launch, recovery and reuse of its rocket system. SpaceX continuity announcer, Kate Tyce, simply stated that “for the seventh time, this Falcon has landed” as she described a flawless […]
Asia Times is reporting that China wants to dramatically boost the number of satellites in orbit while China Newsweek talks about a new enterprise, China Star Net, which will be formed and based in Shanghai. China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), a state-owned enterprise, outlined its plans to preliminarily finish the construction of the […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband service is now in beta-test mode over North America and a few other ‘friends and family’ locations overseas. SpaceX is on record as saying that initially Starlink will focus very much on North America and would probably expand its service overseas via local agents and resellers. However, Musk says that […]
Would-be subscribers outside North America will have to wait some tome for access to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite system. Starlink VP Jonathan Hofeller, speaking at last week’s Euroconsult World Satellite Business Week virtual edition, told attendees that as far as North America was concerned Starlink would stay as a ‘direct to consumer’ business. Starlink is already […]
Telesat’s SVP of Corporate & Business Development, Michael Schwartz, told attendees to the Euroconsult World Satellite Business Week event, held virtually this year, that the Canadian company would meet the key deadlines to build and launch its Low Earth Orbiting satellite constellation. Earlier this week Telesat confirmed a C$600 million (€387.5m) commitment from the Canadian […]
Euroconsult’s Alexandre Najjar, a senior consultant with the research firm, speaking at its World Satellite Business Week virtual event, said that between January 1st and November 1st this year it had recorded 1029 smaller satellite launches. Adding in larger craft and the total rose to 1079. This is a record and beat the 2019 total […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite service is providing impressive speeds to its beta-test users. Numerous reports are emerging that downlink speeds, according to speedtest specialist Ookla, are reaching 160 Mb/s and for at least one rural customer in Montana stated that his downlink speed was 174 Mb/s and upload of 33 Mb/s. Another on the West […]
Elon Musk is inviting consumers in rural America to install his Starlink satellite broadband system, at a cost of $99 a month. They also have to pay $499 for the antenna and its associated kit. However, it is widely accepted that Musk’s SpaceX is swallowing some of the antenna’s costs. As recently reported, the search […]