A submission from a landowner who objected to the establishment of a rocket launch site in the Sutherland (Scotland) Highlands & Islands failed, and permission has now been given for the site’s spaceport development to go ahead. Scotland’s Court of Session in Edinburgh, in a judicial review, denied the application by billionaire landowner (and Scotland’s […]
Canada-based satellite component supplier MDA reports it is actively bidding on supplying several mega-constellations of satellites in addition to the contracts it has in place with Telesat’s broadband-by-satellite Lightspeed project and OneWeb. MDA’s CEO Mike Greenley says the company expects to see revenues of some C$800 million (€547.3m) from its Lightspeed contracts between this year […]
On August 14th, astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who’s based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tweeted that a small piece of a Russian rocket (officially Object 48078, 1996051Q) had hit a Chinese satellite (Yunhai 1-02) which was damaged on impact. The Russian Zenit-2 rocket launched back in September 1996 and […]
Thailand’s attempt to encourage more bidders for the nation’s orbital satellite slots has failed. TC Space Connect, a subsidiary of existing incumbent Thaicom, is again the sole bidder. National Telecom (NT) has not proceeded with a bid. The official auction is due to be held on August 28th. The existing satellite concession for Thaicom ends […]
Luxembourg is already well-known for space and satellite activity. As well as being the home for satellite giant SES Astra, it is also the formal domicile for SES’s arch-rival Intelsat (although Intelsat is actually run from Washington, DC). Now Spacety Luxembourg is hoping to emulate its established colleagues. Italy-based T4i and Spacety Luxembourg have signed […]
Specialists of the Ops Dept of the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) orbital constellation have completed the translation of the Express-AM33 satellite from the orbital position of 96.5° E to the 11° W slot. To translate the Express-AM33 to the required position, the satellite had made 120 orbits around the Earth at an altitude of […]
SiriusXM has ordered a new satellite, SXM-9, from Maxar Technologies. The SXM-9 satellite will be based on Maxar’s 1300-class platform and built at the company’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California. It is expected that SXM-9 will launch in 2024. Maxar has been building satellites for SiriusXM since 2000, which includes the first-generation Sirius satellites […]
Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat has teamed with ThinKom Solutions to collaborate on the development of antennas for Telesat’s upcoming Lightspeed fleet of Low Earth Orbiting broadband satellites. Telesat is talking up downlink speeds of 830 Mb/s. The two companies will work together to facilitate operations of the ThinKom Ka2517 antennas on the fully integrated 298 […]
The only business to enter a bid for Thailand’s orbital slot auction is sitting tenant Thaicom. An auction, organised by the nation’s National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), has seen zero interest from other suitors. NBTC, in something of a last-ditch effort, has set August 28th as a new deadline for bids to be entered. […]
A Northern Sky Research study says the impact on non-Geostationary High Throughput Satellite supply will dramatically change the parameters for satellite operators. “The Satellite Industry’s transformation continues with revenues shifting to Data verticals and deep changes in business models. The onslaught of capacity coming in targeted to tap key markets, specifically Backhaul, Consumer Broadband, Mobility […]