Thaicom, the Asian satellite operator, has announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with US-based Orbital Insight, a player in geospatial analytics and location intelligence technology, to enable Thaicom to deliver data insights and intelligence services leveraging space-based technology and other sources with Orbital Insight’s geospatial analytics platform to its customers in Thailand and […]
Analysis by space consulting and market intelligence firm Euroconsult shows a 10 per cent increase in the number of commercial aircraft connected to in-flight services compared to 2020, totalling 9,900 planes by the end of 2021. Within the next decade, the number of aircraft using such services is expected to double to more than 21,000. […]
Launched in July 2021 to a location at 48 degrees East, the European Space Agency (ESA) says that Eutelsat’s Quantum satellite is not only busy, but filling up with 6 out of its 8 beams sold. Quantum is a fully-reconfigurable software-defined satellite with extremely sophisticated benefits. It mainly serves the Middle East and North African […]
Viasat has won a contract to supply new aircraft from Airshare’s fractional ownership fleet with its Ka-band In-Flight Connectivity and broadband access. Airshare’s new fleet includes aircraft from Bombardier including their Challenger 350 and upcoming Challenger 3500 versions. Viasat says that these new installations will allow passengers and crew to access high-speed connectivity solutions during […]
Later this year, probably in October, a modified Virgin Orbit aircraft will take off from an updated Cornwall Airport, near Newquay and now named Spaceport Cornwall. The aircraft is expected to carry around 8 smallish satellites into space. The activity will be the first-ever satellite mission handled by a ‘horizontal launcher’ from the UK, according […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) is contemplating using a number of SpaceX launch rockets to maintain its scientific and governmental missions because of delays to Ariane’s rockets and the absence of Russian rockets because of the Ukraine boycotts. ESA’s DG Josef Aschbacher, talking to Reuters, said that there were a number of options including Japanese […]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket placed 46 Starlink satellites into one of five orbital shells in SpaceX’s internet constellation on August 12th. SpaceX began launching dedicated missions into one of the network two polar orbit shells last month. SpaceX has previously launched satellites into the other three shells at inclinations of 53 degrees, 53.2 degrees, […]
Washington State-based Spaceflight Industries’ subsidiary Andrews Space is readying its Shrpa so-called Space Tug, or satellite orbital recovery craft. Its latest version (Sherpa LTC-2) is a chemically powered satellite and was delivered on August 10th to SpaceX’s facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida ahead of a launch in September. The craft had already been delivered […]
Intelsat and OneWeb have signed a “global distribution” partnership, an initiative to provide a global service for In Flight Communications and broadband to aircraft. Intelsat already has considerable skin in the game because it bought in 2020 the commercial aviation connectivity business from Gogo for what many have seen as being a timely ‘bargain’ of […]
The FCC has turned down Elon Musk’s SpaceX request for an $886 million (€860m) grant as part of the US government’s massive $20.4 billion rural broadband subsidy scheme. The FCC had previously awarded the sum back in 2020, but that move has now been rejected. In a statement, the FCC said the FCC said that […]