Advanced Television

Fitch anxious over Eutelsat debt

Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat has successfully raised €600 million in fresh debt. The notes are due for repayment in 2029 and bear an interest rate of 9.75 per cent. Eutelsat says it intends to use the gross proceeds together with cash on hand, to fund the repurchase of its €800 million 2 per cent bonds […]

March 28, 2024

Ariane 6 update from ESA

In “early April” the European Space Agency (ESA) expects to integrate the second booster stage onto the giant Ariane 6 rocket in readiness for the craft’s crucial inaugural flight from French Guiana. The debut flight is scheduled for between June 15th – July 31st. This pre-flight work is important and it is crucial that the […]

March 27, 2024

SpaceX to sell lasers to competitors

Some SpaceX satellites are already fitted with laser-based devices (officially called Optical Inter-Satellite Links, OISLs). At the Satellite 2024 event in Washington SpaceX’s president and COO Gwynne Shotwell explained that SpaceX was happy to start selling its lasers to other companies. Shotwell said that SpaceX has around 5000 lasers in use of its satellites, and […]

March 26, 2024

Analyst: EchoStar still under pressure

A report on EchoStar from analysts at Bond research specialist, Gimme Credit, looks at the newly-merged operation (with EchoStar absorbing DISH Network) and is blunt saying they expect the company to continue losing subscribers during 2024, which would lead to a decrease in revenue of around 6 per cent. The report expects EchoStar to be […]

March 25, 2024

Rivada: Where’s the money?

Rivada Space Networks is in the process of building the first batch of 300 low Earth orbiting satellites. Terran Orbital is building the satellites for Rivada, and there is an option for a further 300 satellites. But there are anxieties over how the fleet is being paid for. Rivada’s obligations are considerable: They are contracted […]

March 24, 2024

SpaceX: Starship #4 will launch in 6 weeks

SpaceX‘s president and COO Gwynne Shotwell was the star speaker at the Washington Satellite 2024 event. She touched on many key elements. She told delegates to the Satellite 2024 event in Washington that Starship Flight #3 was “incredibly successful” and that #4 would take place in “about 6 weeks”. But the flight would not carry […]

March 21, 2024

Intelsat outlines future; plans for MEO

David Wajsgras, CEO at Intelsat, used his Keynote at the Washington Satellite 2024 show to explain how the satellite giant was changing from its past role, albeit important global supplier of bandwidth, to what he saw as new opportunities. Included in his discussion was news that Intelsat was close to deciding on a Medium-Earth orbiting […]

March 20, 2024

Azerbaijan beats US in IAC Congress

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) to be held in the city of Milan, Italy later this year (October 14th-18th) but its collection of submitted abstracts has already been published. Azerbaijan, which hosted the 2023 event, is in the Top 5 of countries in the world in terms of scientific articles published. It should be noted […]

March 19, 2024

SpaceX building a spy satellite network?

Widespread stories suggest that SpaceX is widening the scope of its existing ‘Starshield’ satellite communications service, which already exists in part, to allow the US military and their intelligence agencies to track their targets and support American and allied ground forces in real time almost anywhere across the globe, Reuters has reported. Elon Musk has […]

March 18, 2024

Hot success for Musk’s Starship

There were 3.3 million people viewing SpaceX’s live web-feed of its March 14th Starship launch, plus many, many millions watching via the world’s news channels as the rocket blasted off on its record-breaking flight. However, the FAA almost immediately issued an investigation order into what it said was a “mishap”. Elon Musk is perhaps not […]

March 15, 2024