Advanced Television

Satellite

SpaceX: Over 6,000 satellites launched

Data from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell shows that 6,011 SpaceX ‘Starlink’ broadband satellites have been launched as at March 16th. He adds that 5,614 are still in orbit, of which 64 appear failed and 122 appear to be in the process of deliberate retirement. SpaceX launched this latest batch of 23 satellites into orbit on March […]

March 19, 2024By Chris Forrester

CMC Networks takes action on South Africa internet outages

CMC Networks, a global Tier 1 service provider, has added Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite connectivity to its portfolio of solutions. This multi-orbit approach addresses the diverse connectivity needs of remote regions and challenging environments across Africa and the Middle East, removing the limits on digital transformation. […]

March 19, 2024

Taiwan wants LEO broadband system

Taiwan wants its own satellite broadband system. Taiwan is just 80 miles from China’s mainland, and is anxious that it must have an independent infrastructure in case of near-by crisis. A report in The New York Times says that Taiwan wants to see an initial satellite orbiting by 2026. Meanwhile, Taiwan has a partnership agreement […]

March 19, 2024By Chris Forrester

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

Nilesat chooses Hughes’ Jupiter for Egypt gateway

EchoStar-owned Hughes Network Systems has been selected by Cairo-based Nilesat for a local gateway which will use Nilesat’s 301 satellite. Hughes will supply one of its Jupiter Gateways and installation will begin shortly and be complete by the end of Q3. Commenting on the deal, Sameh Katta, Chairman/CEO of Nilesat, said: “The Nilesat vision is […]

March 19, 2024By Chris Forrester

OneWeb seeks June launch in India

Despite some powerful local support from the likes of a main shareholder (Bharti), Eutelsat OneWeb is still not permitted to operate in India. That might now change with a formal request by OneWeb to India’s Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC) of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for spectrum allocation. Once the spectrum is allocated, […]

March 18, 2024By Chris Forrester

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

Viasat wins Royal Jordanian for IFC

Satellite operator Viasat has secured a contract to equip and supply In-Flight Communications (IFC) and broadband to passengers on Royal Jordanian Airlines. Viasat says it will be enabling fast streaming connectivity and enhance Royal Jordanian’s customer experience. Royal Jordanian says the service will extend to most aircraft in its fleet. Royal Jordanian will equip more […]

March 18, 2024By Chris Forrester

Terran Orbital offers new Geo-satellite

Terran Orbital is using the Washington DC 2024 Satellite show to debut its latest craft, a next-generation ‘SmallSat’ which aims to provide higher network performance in the sat-coms market but on a much smaller scale which is cheaper to build and launch. Terran Orbital says the very much smaller (than usual) satellite will be adaptable […]

March 18, 2024By Chris Forrester

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