EchoStar is sitting on a war chest of $1.7 billion in cash, and wants to invest in an expanded fleet of wide-band satellites to augment its existing 28-craft fleet of Lyra narrowband satellites. The news emerged in EchoStar’s post-result analyst call when CEO Hamid Akhavan said: “We are in the design and engineering phase of […]
SES CEO Steve Collar, speaking to analysts following on from the satellite operator’s Q1 results on May 4th, said the European Union’s third global satellite constellation, IRIS², was a “strategic project” for SES. Nevertheless, he admitted that while enthusiastic there were still many known unknowns and it was too early to be more specific. “We’re […]
The May 4th launch of 56 Starlink satellites for SpaceX represented a key milestone for Elon Musk’s broadband by satellite project and its Falcon-9 rocket. With these satellites moving towards their orbital responsibilities, SpaceX surpasses 4,000 satellites in orbit and will have launched 4,340 total satellites according to data from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell at the […]
Advent International has wrapped the purchase of satellite builder Maxar Technologies for $6.4 billion (€5.7bn). Maxar Technologies was created in 2017 from the combination of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and DigitalGlobe, with the resulting company renamed Maxar. Maxar was also the parent of Space Systems Loral (SSL) based in Palo Alto, California. The company’s […]
Analysts at Quilty Space report that OneWeb’s Gen-1 network will be slightly smaller than originally anticipated. A tweet from OneWeb’s CTO confirmed that the company’s last launch, a May/June Falcon 9 mission, will carry only 16 OneWeb satellites. That means the final Gen-1 satellite count will be 634, or 14 less than the original plan […]
Hispasat’s new satellite has completed the necessary ground infrastructure for its entry into service in the middle of this year. Amazonas Nexus is specially designed to offer high quality connectivity for air and maritime mobility services and will effectively contribute to reduce the digital gap in Latin America in an efficient way. Hispasat has reached […]
In the period 2012 to 2021 there were just 466 smaller satellites per year launched into orbit. Euroconsult forecasts that in the decade from 2022 to 2031 the expected number jumps to 1,846 per year. That earlier period showed that the average weight of these smaller craft was some 141 kgs. The current decade is […]
Illinois-based John Deere, the agricultural machinery manufacturer, enjoyed revenue of $52.5 billion last year. Its users are increasingly dependent on modern technology to keep their farms functioning 24/7, and usually without human control. Until now John Deere has depended on conventional WiFi and telco connectivity for these independent machines. But remote sites and many overseas […]
SES has confirmed that it has joined a group of European space and telecommunications players, including rival Eutelsat, which have come together to form a partnership to respond to the European Commission’s call for tender related to the future European satellite constellation IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite). The IRIS² satellite constellation […]
Helped by the availability of its latest O3b mPOWER satellites, SES has won a contract from CNT Ecuador which will use mPOWER to carry Internet and cellular services for the Galapagos Islands. Telecom provider CNT and SES announced what they describe as a major Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite capacity expansion agreement to deliver more […]