The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) has announced the release of its 26th annual State of the Satellite Industry Report (SSIR), a global summary of the commercial satellite industry. For a fifth consecutive year, the commercial satellite industry launched a record number of commercial satellites into orbit. A total of 2,325 commercial satellites were deployed during […]

Satellite and terrestrial networks operator Intelsat has ordered its second Mission Extension Pod (MEP) from Northrop Grumman Corporation’s SpaceLogistics, which will add life to an Intelsat satellite, providing uninterrupted services to many customers. The new contract represents the fourth deal with SpaceLogistics, following an order for a single MEP in April 2023 and two Mission […]

Seraphim Space, the global space investment company, has announced it is supporting 100 space companies with equity funding. In 2016 Seraphim launched a venture fund focused on space, followed by a dedicated SpaceTech Accelerator in 2017 (now on its 11th cohort). Following an oversubscribed IPO of £250 million in 2021 the first publicly listed growth […]

Australian telco Telstra and OneWeb are set to deliver one of the world’s largest rollouts of OneWeb Low Earth Orbit (LEO) backhaul for a commercial mobile network. After testing in Australia, Telstra and OneWeb have agreed commercial terms and will begin moving hundreds of existing remote mobile base stations currently using satellite backhaul to OneWeb’s […]

While the IRIS2 broadband consortium headlines, and its €6 billion costs, will still be dominated by the heavyweight participants such as SES, Eutelsat, Thales and Airbus, there will definitely be an opportunity for smaller space businesses to be involved. The EC’s director for space and innovation, Catherine Kavvada, speaking at the Paris Air Forum ahead […]

Virgin Galactic will re-start commercial flights before the end of June. Its first mission, dubbed ‘Galactic 01’, and the first commercial flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle will happen between June 27th-30th on a scientific mission for the Italian Air Force. SpaceShipTwo will fly from Spaceport America in New Mexico. It will carry three people […]

Losing 4 satellites out of an orbital fleet of 634 satellites is not a bad ratio. However, the operator – currently en route to a merger with Eutelsat – is urging for an industry-wide approach to safely disposing of failed satellites. Sunil Bharti Mittal, OneWeb’s executive chairman and currently major shareholder through his Bharti Global […]

SpaceX successfully launched a powerful and much-needed Indonesian communications satellite on June 18th. The new craft, SATRIA, is the linchpin in a $550 million project to provide high-speed internet access to schools, medical centres and thousands of public and government facilities across the island nation. A Falcon 9 rocket, using a booster stage that was […]

Eutelsat is selling its European retail broadband services. The sell-off includes its holdings in Bigblu Broadband and similar retail operations in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary and Greece. Eutelsat has struggled to win significant customer acceptance for its retail operations. It has already exited KaSat (EuroBroadband, which it sold 100 […]

The European Commission has rejected four smaller consortia for its IRIS2 low Earth orbiting constellation. It has selected a consortium made up of Airbus Defense & Space, Eutelsat, Hispasat, SES and Thales Alenia Space, backed also by Deutsche Telekom, OHB SE, Orange, Hisdesat, Telespazio and Thales Group. This major group will now fine tune its […]