EchoStar-owned Hughes Network Systems is supplying Kazakhstan with satellite equipment to help connect more than 200 villages throughout the country, and help bridge the ‘digital divide’. Kazakhstan’s Republican Center of Space Communication (RCSC), via the Ministry of Digital Development, is placing the order which calls for Hughes Jupiter System ground platforms. The order is being […]
Madrid-based Hispasat and Toulouse-based Infinite Orbits will collaborate in analysing a life extension mission, using Endurance, Infinite Orbits’ GEO satellite life extension service solution. According to the agreement, both parties target finalising the corresponding satellite life extension service contract in the first half of 2024. Both entities are enthusiastic about advancing the development of a […]
The US Federal Aviation Administration issued its somewhat last-minute approval and licence for the launch today (March 14th) of Elon Musk’s massive Starship rocket and its powerful ‘Super Heavy’ booster. The FAA’s permission was essential, as were the issuing of Marine Hazard notices, Environmental requirements, alerts to aircraft, local road closures and Evacuation notices for […]
AST SpaceMobile wants to provide the planet’s smartphone owners with satellite-delivered 5G connectivity. The Texas-based company already has a massive prototype satellite in orbit, launched in September 2022, and claims that its technology is the world’s “first and only” global cellular broadband network and with 3,100 patents in place. But it has hit problems with […]
Project Kuiper is planning its own mega-constellation and has already raised concerns about SpaceX’s proposed occupation of the 604 and 614 kms orbits. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has written to the FCC complaining about a SpaceX request to adjust the altitude of 7,500 satellites previously authorised to operate at altitudes of 525, 530 and 535 kms, […]
Rocket Lab launches rockets from either its dedicated site in New Zealand (44 launches) or Virginia’s Wallops Island. Founded 17 years ago in Auckland, New Zealand by Peter Beck it now has its HQ in Long Beach, and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange. The company says it is targeting SpaceX and wants to […]
Satellite operator SES has signed an MoU with Saudi Arabia’s giant oil and natural gas producer Aramco. As at 2022 Aramco was the second largest company in the world based on revenue. It is based in Dharan in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. The MoU sees SES and Aramco explore potential collaboration opportunities for leveraging high-performance […]
Eutelsat’s latest satellite, the Airbus Space-built 36D telecommunications craft, is on its way to Florida ready for a month-end launch on a SpaceX rocket. A giant Airbus ‘Beluga’ aircraft flew the 5-tonne all-electric satellite from Toulouse, via a refuelling stop on Terceira Island in the Azores, and then onward to Florida. Eutelsat 36D is an […]
Provided the weather is acceptable, and the various government agencies give their final approvals, SpaceX will launch its massive Starship ‘super heavy’ rocket on March 14th from its Boca Chica site in south Texas. The mission manifest – officially IFT3 – opens at launch minus 1 hour, 15 minutes when the launch director approved the […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved a SpaceX request to fit 7,500 of its satellites with E-band frequencies. The 7,500 are not extra satellites but are within the wider deployment of planned Starlink ‘Gen-2’ craft. SpaceX proposes to operate in the E-band for communications between satellites and gateway earth stations. The FCC order states: […]