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 […]
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) […]
Strange times in the UK news market. GB News continues to generate its own headlines by setting new records for Ofcom breaches, while Talk TV announces it is shutting down its broadcast version. News UK has decided its niche news channel was a bit too niche – the fact star turn Piers Morgan had already […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
For the best part of 20 years, under the tenure of successive CEO’s Romain Bausch, Karim Michel Sabbagh and Steve Collar, the accepted mantra was that SES did not need a Low Earth orbiting (LEO) fleet of satellites. That position might now be very different under new CEO Adel Al-Salah who has been in post […]
A rescue satellite is being moved from coverage of Alaska to serve a Middle East operator. The Astranis craft had plans to beam broadband to Alaska but cut short by a solar array issue and is now on is on its way to a geostationary position over Asia for a very different mission. Astranis will […]
The FAA has detailed and listed the 17 technical corrections that need to be carried out of the giant SpaceX Starship rocket before the third test flight can take place. The FAA says that its investigation into the rocket’s November 17th 2023 explosion has concluded. All updates are underway. SpaceX issued its own comments and […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has published its proposed framework which could allow satellite operators to use spectrum from terrestrial cellular businesses for their smartphone connections, and when beyond the reach of conventional mobile towers. Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC chair, says the final draft of rules have been sent to the regulator’s other four Commissioners that, […]