Advanced Television

Bank downgrades SES

Investment bank Berenberg has downgraded satellite operator SES from ‘Buy’ to ‘Hold’. The bank has also reduced its share price target from €7.20 to €6.80. The bank’s report says that it believes that the operator’s cash warchest, made up of the receipts of the $3 billion from the FCC as compensation for releasing certain C-band […]

March 14, 2024

Rocket Lab: “We must match SpaceX’s business model”

Rocket Lab launches rockets from either its dedicated site in New Zealand (44 launches) or Virginia’s Wallops Island. Founded 17 years ago in Auckland, New Zealand by Peter Beck it now has its HQ in Long Beach, and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange. The company says it is targeting SpaceX and wants to […]

March 13, 2024

Starship flight plan lodged

Provided the weather is acceptable, and the various government agencies give their final approvals, SpaceX will launch its massive Starship ‘super heavy’ rocket on March 14th from its Boca Chica site in south Texas. The mission manifest – officially IFT3 – opens at launch minus 1 hour, 15 minutes when the launch director approved the […]

March 12, 2024

FCC approves 7,500 Starlinks with E-band

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved a SpaceX request to fit 7,500 of its satellites with E-band frequencies. The 7,500 are not extra satellites but are within the wider deployment of planned Starlink ‘Gen-2’ craft. SpaceX proposes to operate in the E-band for communications between satellites and gateway earth stations. The FCC order states: […]

March 11, 2024

ESPI seeks new ways to finance Space activity

The European Space Policy Initiative (ESPI), in a major report, says that an increasing number of startups are unable to progress to subsequent funding rounds despite the overall growth in sector investment. ESPI pointed to potential challenges in the scalability and sustainability of these startups, and asked for both public and private sectors, which entity […]

March 9, 2024

Lost Eutelsat craft stabilised

On February 2nd, Eutelsat’s 113 West A LatAm satellite unexpectedly suffered an orbital malfunction which left it tumbling uncontrolled in space. Eutelsat promptly shifted its clients to near-by satellites. Reports from ground-based observers said that the satellite has been at least stabilised, and is no longer tumbling. “It appears that the attitude control is at […]

March 8, 2024

Musk’s Starship #3 to launch on March 14

SpaceX has announced that the third test flight of its Starship giant ‘Super Heavy’ rocket, subject to the usual weather considerations, will happen on March 14th. Recent days have seen various final tests and rehearsals take place at the Boca Chica launch site and the FAA and other national agencies (for wildlife and environmental impact) […]

March 6, 2024By Chris Forrester

Starlink: 10,000 lasers in space

SpaceX broke a batch of records on the March 3rd-4th weekend. In a 20-hour period it launched the Dragon ‘Crew-8’ group of astronauts to the International Space Station. It also launched a large batch of 53 scientific satellites on its latest Transporter mission, and placed another group of 23 of its own Starlink satellites into […]

March 5, 2024

EchoStar: “We are a going concern”

As Mark Twain said when a newspaper incorrectly published his obituary, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The same phrase could be used for last week’s commentaries on EchoStar’s results with more than a few experts suggesting that bankruptcy was more likely than ever. Even EchoStar’s own Form 10K SEC filing admitted that […]

March 4, 2024

NASA scraps Maxar’s ‘space tug’ refuelling project

NASA has ended its $2 billion OSAM-1 project, under development and construction by Maxar Technologies. NASA is unhappy with Maxar’s “poor performance” and delays. OSAM-1 has been in development since 2015, with the intention of orbital docking with the Landsat 7 imagery satellite in orbit, to repair, refuel and extend the life of the aging […]

March 3, 2024