There’s little doubt that an exploding Starship created headlines and vivid images for newspapers and broadcasters on April 20th. But keen-eyed observers have raised more than a few questions for the SpaceX engineers, technicians and specialists who are now working to discover the reasons behind the “rapid unscheduled disassembly”. Concerns have been raised about the […]

Intelsat’s long-running Class Action lawsuit against key shareholders alleging insider trading will be decided by a judge on the basis of documents and motions already filed to the court. The judge in the case has cancelled a planned full court hearing (which called for a jury trial) and dismissed some of the motions in the […]

Few have more admiration for Rupert Murdoch than me. He has been dominating the ‘new media’ space all my working life, and that is true for virtually everyone reading this. What I admire particularly is that KRM has – unlike any number of other faceless corporates or ‘characterful’ entrepreneurs – regularly bet the farm on […]

The EU has fleshed out its core demands as regards the tender process for its proposed IRIS2 super-constellation of satellites. The European Commission (EC) issued its preliminary Request for Proposals on March 23rd and set a date for responses of April 26th. That date will slip (to July 31st) given the number of queries raised […]

A report from analysts at Quilty Space (the former Quilty Analytics) takes a forensic look at the reasons behind the collapse of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit, and reports on what contributed to the project’s failure and entry into Chapter 11 reconstruction. Quilty reminds readers that Virgin Orbit was unveiled back in 2012 and has […]

Shortly, Eutelsat 13G, the operator’s very latest satellite, will be positioned at its ‘home’ location, 13 degrees East, but meanwhile it is being tested near 12 degrees East where reportedly four signals are being transmitted to ensure coverage is as expected. 13G was launched back in November 2022 and in February 2023, its sister craft […]

Virgin Orbit says it wants to exit its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of May. The rocket-launching company moved into its ‘Debtor in Possession’ mode on April 4th with fresh cash (of $31.6 million) coming from Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Investments company. Virgin Orbit, in a 78-page motion to its bankruptcy court, supplied […]

Elon Musk says his giant Starship could make its debut flight during the third week of April. Observers suggest April 20th is a dependable target date, subject to the usual weather and technical considerations. Work at the launch site has been happening for months and intensified over the past 10 days, with Musk saying that […]

Virgin Orbit’s outgoing COO Tony Gingiss had some tough words for his fellow company leaders in a company-wide email obtained by news channel CNBC. The New York NASDAQ index is also suspending the company’s stock listing, effective April 13th. Although Gingiss doesn’t name CEO Dan Hart by name in his memo, or main backer Sir […]