Advanced Television

musk

Who is behind Project Kraken?

Space Florida, a State-backed unit designed to build on Florida’s already hugely successful space-related activity, is in contact with Project Kraken – a mystery space business that could be looking to locate in or near Florida’s famous Space Coast. Amazon has confirmed that its Project Kuiper mega-constellation of 3,200 satellites have anything to do with […]

March 22, 2021

Bezos/Musk alumni create new rocket business

Stoke-Space Technologies with a C-level staff list that includes some hirings from Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk-backed businesses Blue Origin and SpaceX, has raised $9.1 million seed capital for its development work on a rocket’s important second stage. Musk’s SpaceX has solved (usually) the task of getting a rocket’s first stage back to Earth, and […]

March 1, 2021By Chris Forrester

Musk: “Starlink to double speeds”

Elon Musk says download transmission rates on his mega-constellation of Starlink satellites will double to around 300 Mb/s later this year. Musk, in a Tweet, added that signal latency will also improve to around 20 milliseconds. He also said that Starlink coverage will reach subscribers around “most” of the planet by the end of this […]

February 23, 2021

SpaceX makes plea for spectrum efficiency

SpaceX’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite system is calling for regulators not to license rival broadband would-be operators who do not recognise frequency sharing. David Goldman, director of satellite & spectrum policy at SpaceX, quoted by Space Intel Report, was speaking to delegates on a panel discussion organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Saudi Arabia’s Communications […]

December 15, 2020By Chris Forrester

Starlink working on lowering terminal costs

Would-be subscribers outside North America will have to wait some tome for access to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite system. Starlink VP Jonathan Hofeller, speaking at last week’s Euroconsult World Satellite Business Week virtual edition, told attendees that as far as North America was concerned Starlink would stay as a ‘direct to consumer’ business. Starlink is already […]

November 16, 2020

Starlink delivering 160 Mb/s

Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite service is providing impressive speeds to its beta-test users. Numerous reports are emerging that downlink speeds, according to speedtest specialist Ookla, are reaching 160 Mb/s and for at least one rural customer in Montana stated that his downlink speed was 174 Mb/s and upload of 33 Mb/s. Another on the West […]

November 4, 2020By Chris Forrester

SpaceX prices Starlink services

Elon Musk’s Starlink service will cost US rural subscribers $99 (€84) a month. The beta-test users will also have to pay $499 for the phased-array ground terminal, a tripod stand for the antenna and a WiFi router. This price seems high, but for rural and frequently isolated potential users it could prove invaluable. The pricing […]

October 28, 2020By Chris Forrester

SpaceX lofts another 60 satellites

Despite a few technical and weather-related delays SpaceX successfully launched another 60 of its Starlink high-speed broadband-by-satellite craft into orbit on October 24th from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral (at 15.31 UTC). This extra batch of 60 satellites was the 15th launch for the Starlink fleet, and takes the overall fleet size to well […]

October 26, 2020By Chris Forrester

Another 60 Starlink craft enter orbit

SpaceX launched another 60 of its Starlink broadband-by-satellite craft into orbit at 8.25am Florida time on October 18th. This was the 14th batch of Starlink launches and takes the delivered total of Low Earth orbiting satellites to 835 (although some have been deorbited). The 60 satellites on board were deployed into a near-circular orbit some […]

October 19, 2020By Chris Forrester

Musk and SpaceX get HBO treatment

HBO has commissioned a 6-part drama series about SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk. The episodic drama is based on a book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. The series, according to trade magazine Variety, will document how Musk handpicked a group of like-minded engineers to work […]

October 15, 2020By Chris Forrester