A report from BryceTech, which analyses and updates global rocket launch activity over Q2, says that SpaceX had the most launches during the three-month period. The 16 launches placed an overall 473 spacecraft into orbit, by far the most of any launch provider. Second place went to CASC, the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation, […]
Sir Richard Branson-backed Virgin Orbit business has won a partnership contract from South Korean investment group, J-Space, to develop a launch site plan, paving the path for expanded space markets and new investor opportunities in South Korea and the surrounding region. The agreement allows the companies to assess candidate spaceport launch sites in South Korea, […]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully placed its latest batch of Starlink craft (mission 4-26) into orbit on August 9th at 10.14pm Florida time. The launch happened from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket’s first-stage booster then landed some 9 minutes later onto the floating barge ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ waiting down-range in the […]
Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat is up against some tough ITU ‘bringing into use’ (BIU) deadlines for its proposed Lightspeed super-constellation of 188 satellites. The ITU is careful with its BIU requirements; its rules are designed to eliminate the filing of so-called ‘paper projects’ where the filer would be granted frequency or orbital permissions for a […]
Elon Musk-backed SpaceX has raised an additional $250 million (€245.5m) in an equity round during July. The extra cash means that SpaceX has raised some $2 billion this year. CNBC, in a May report, says that the cash then raised puts a value on SpaceX of more than $127 billion. It is also suggested that […]
The world’s three leading satellite operators are talking about mergers. Eutelsat has announced its plan to merge with OneWeb, while SES is reported to be in talks to merge with Intelsat. But the market has delivered a devastating comment on both sets of reports. For example, Eutelsat suffered a massive fall in its share price […]
Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat, in supplying its latest results, is still not able to give any news on its planned Lightspeed low Earth orbiting super-constellation and how it is to be financed. Project delays as a result of Covid also mean that Telesat is up against some key ITU and FCC launch obligations being missed. […]
Hughes Network Systems, a sister company of EchoStar and owned by Charlie Ergen, admits that SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service is now its “biggest competitive threat”. While Hughes says it can supply perfectly adequate services – especially when combined with an upcoming satellite/LTE combination offer to its customers – it now says that its biggest threat […]
The important addition to the SES fleet of satellites by its new mPOWER medium Earth orbiting craft has again been delayed. The news, perhaps linked with the reports that SES was in discussions with arch-rival Intelsat over a possible link-up, didn’t help the SES share price, which crashed 9.2 per cent in early trading on […]
While the market will no doubt be talking about a potential merger between SES and Intelsat, SES reported its half-year financials on August 4th. However, the numbers show that SES’s Video division, still a very important element of the company’s revenue stream, was down 7 per cent (y-o-y) despite being helped by a growing income […]