Advanced Television

starlink

airBaltic deploys Starlink for IFC

Latvian airline airBaltic will equip its entire Airbus A220-300 fleet with SpaceX’s Starlink internet broadband connectivity system. The airline says that every passenger will benefit from complimentary, in-flight high-speed internet access during all flights without hassles or login pages. Starlink can deliver up to 350 Mbps to aircraft, and with latency as low as 20 […]

January 11, 2023By Chris Forrester

SpaceX orbits 54 Starlinks

SpaceX successfully launched its latest batch of Starlinks on December 28th, but there’s some confusion as to the precise make-up of the satellites carried into orbit. Officially, SpaceX talks about the mission being Starlink Group 5-1, and there’s plenty of talk about the satellites being the first flight dedicated to Starlink’s ‘second generation’ versions. The […]

January 2, 2023By Chris Forrester

Second-gen Starlink ready to launch

SpaceX has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it is ready to start launching its second generation Starlink satellites. The letter to the FCC says that it anticipates beginning its second generation satellites “before the end of December”. SpaceX has also asked for FCC permission to bring into use these second generation craft and […]

December 22, 2022By Chris Forrester

Starlink confirms 1m subs

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 […]

December 20, 2022By Chris Forrester

SpaceX adds 54 Starlinks; breaks records

SpaceX placed 54 of its Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on December 17th, and in the process extended its reliability record. The record-breaking flight used the Falcon 9’s booster for the 15th time, the most-ever. The cost-saving benefits of re-using the Falcon 9’s booster is significant. SpaceX charges around $65 million (€61.2m) for a commercial […]

December 19, 2022By Chris Forrester

FCC partially approves Gen2 Starlink deployment

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX’s application to deploy up to 7,500 satellites but put other decisions on hold. SpaceX had sought approval to operate a network of 29,988 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites. “Specifically, we grant SpaceX authority to construct, deploy, and operate up to 7,500 satellites operating at altitudes of 525, […]

December 2, 2022By Colin Mann

Satellite broadband trial for rural UK

A trial has been launched to establish the extent to which satellites can be used to deliver high-speed connections to more than a dozen ‘very hard to reach’ UK locations – the less than one per cent of sites which are too difficult to upgrade via expensive physical cables in more extreme locations such as […]

December 1, 2022By Colin Mann

Updated SpaceX schedule

A planned November 17th SpaceX launch of 52 Starlink satellites (Mission 2-4) from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California was scrubbed because of a glitch in a static test firing of the rocket’s booster. The launch of a Eutelsat (10B) will happen on November 21st (9.57pm Florida time). The cancelled Starlink launch would have […]

November 20, 2022By Chris Forrester

Ofcom licenses Starlink, Lightspeed

UK regulator Ofcom has already identified Elon Musk’s Starlink and Canadian operator Telesat for their innovative wireless and broadband services. Both Starlink and Telesat’s Lightspeed licences are being approved and extended. Additionally, Ofcom has issued its future plan to encourage and enable further innovation. Ofcom’s initiative includes a new strategy for supporting the space sector […]

November 10, 2022By Chris Forrester

Starlink launch success, but data-rates warnings

SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites into orbit on Thursday night (October 27th, 9.14pm California time/1.14 am GMT, October 28th) from Vandenberg Space Force Base.  It was SpaceX’s 49th launch this year. The Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ floating barge about 9 minutes after launch. It was […]

October 28, 2022