British broadcast distribution business, Arqiva, has been awarded the UK contract to provide ground station gateways for Elon Musk’s upcoming Starlink broadband by satellite service. Arqiva will collect and send the Starlink traffic through its fibre network according to reports. However, Arqiva is declining to comment on the news. There is more potential good news […]
Barely a fortnight since SpaceX’s last batch of 60 Starlink satellites were launched (on March 11th) a Falcon 9 rocket has placed another batch of 60 satellites into orbit. The latest launch occurred at 08.28 GMT (04.28 ET) on March 24th from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Later the Falcon 9 first […]
Investment bank analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that the news that Elon Musk has asked the FCC for permission to expand its Starlink broadband-by-satellite system to moving vehicles (trucks/RVs, aircraft and ships) has not only major implications for the auto industry, but the “topic appears to be moving even faster than we had anticipated”. Last […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]