April 15, 2021 – Thales Alenia Space, as prime contractor for Galileo First Generation’s Ground Mission Segment, has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of the European Commission in the Horizon 2020 Satellite Navigation Program (HSNAV), to develop the Advanced Orbit Determination and Time Synchronisation (ODTS) Algorithms Test Platform (A-OATP). This…

April 13, 2021 – ST Engineering iDirect has successfully delivered its transformational Mx-DMA MRC (Multi Resolution Coding) technology to its flagship customers, including satellite service provider Ningbo BIRDSAT which is leveraging the technology to offer differentiated services in the highly competitive fishing market. Building on the award-winning Mx-DMA HRC (High Resolution Coding) technology, Mx-DMA MRC…

April 13, 2021 – Astrobotic announced today its selection of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket in a competitive commercial procurement to launch its Griffin lunar lander to the Moon in late 2023. Griffin will be carrying NASA’s water-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). Astrobotic was awarded a task order in 2020 from NASA to deliver…

April 12, 2021 – OneWeb has announced that it has signed an MoU with subsidiaries of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry: national satellite operator Republican Centre of Space Communications JSC, national company Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary, and Ghalam LLP, a spacecraft component supplier. The MoU develops OneWeb’s partnership with the Government of…

April 8, 2021 – Telesat has joined MEF, a global federation of network, cloud, and technology providers working together to empower enterprise digital transformation. Telesat is building the advanced features that enterprise customers, telecom operators and service providers require, and its involvement with MEF will enable members to seamlessly integrate with the Telesat Lightspeed network…

April 7, 2021 – Eutelsat Communications and The Rural Connectivity Group (RCG), a joint venture between New Zealand’s three mobile network operators, have signed a contract to bring an upgraded telecommunications network to New Zealand’s Chatham Islands. Under the terms of this multi-year agreement, RCG will leverage the EUTELSAT 172B satellite to support the Rural…

April 7, 2021 – As part of its mission to deliver low latency, ‘fibre-like’ connectivity to the maritime and offshore industries, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company OneWeb, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The AST Group (AST), a global leader in satellite communications systems. By working together, AST and OneWeb…

April 7, 2021 – Intelsat released a smaller antenna class for its FlexMaritime service today that will bring a new level of broadband connectivity performance and affordability to leisure, fishing and light-commercial maritime vessels around the world. The 45 centimeter (cm) antennas are small enough to hand carry aboard vessels and easy to install. They…

April 2, 2021 – Thales Alenia Space announced today that it has set up a new FabLab (fabrication laboratory) at its plant in Charleroi, Belgium. This approach reflects the company’s ongoing digital transformation to anticipate disruptive advances in the space industry. Following the company’s first FabLabs in Toulouse, Cannes and Rome, this latest addition is…

March 26, 2021 – On March 25, 2021, Express-103 spacecraft was put into operation, joining the orbital constellation of Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) at 96.5° E. All in-orbit flight tests of the service systems module and the payload of Express-103 satellite were carried out in full and with positive results. The new communication satellite…

March 26, 2021 – OneWeb announced a Memorandum of Understanding with US DoD satellite communications application specialist, TrustComm Inc. The agreement, signed on 16 March, envisions OneWeb and TrustComm working together to deliver OneWeb’s high speed, low latency, beyond line-of-sight communications services – with initial focus on the northern latitudes. The partnership between OneWeb and…

March 25, 2021 – Today’s launch, Flight ST30, was the 55th Soyuz mission carried out by Arianespace and its Starsem affiliate. Performed on Thursday, March 25 at precisely 11:47 a.m. local time at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome (02:47 a.m. UTC), Flight ST30 orbited 36 new OneWeb satellites – bringing the size of the fleet in orbit…

March 25, 2021 – SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation has selected Airbus to build Superbird-9, a fully digital in-orbit reconfigurable telecommunications satellite. The satellite will be based on Airbus’ standardised OneSat product line. Airbus will provide a turnkey solution, including design and manufacture of the Superbird-9 spacecraft, associated services and support for in-orbit operations and ground…

March 23, 2021 – SES announced today the results of its annual Satellite Monitor market research, the industry’s premier accounting of satellite’s TV reach, which underscore SES’s established position as a leader in enabling direct and indirect content delivery via satellite. SES continues to lead the industry by delivering 8,265 channels, with almost 3,000 of…

March 19, 2021 – During a recent meeting in Rome between Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, and Giancarlo Giorgetti, Italian Minister of Economic Development, Arianespace announced the signature of an agreement with Avio to start production of 10 new Vega C launch vehicles. This agreement kicks off the procurement…

March 18, 2021 – The UK Space Agency has awarded a National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) contract to Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications to develop an in-orbit telemetry relay service for rockets called “InRange”. Inmarsat’s InRange service will reduce the dependency of space launch providers on traditional, expensive ground-based monitoring systems…

March 18, 2021 – NASA and SpaceX have signed a joint agreement to formalize both parties’ strong interest in the sharing of information to maintain and improve space safety. This agreement enables a deeper level of coordination, cooperation, and data sharing, and defines the arrangement, responsibilities, and procedures for flight safety coordination. The focus of…

March 18, 2021 – Amartus is supporting SES with its deep expertise in network automation standards and a proven track record adapting commercial B-OSS software platforms to meet the needs of SES’s next-generation non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) constellation called O3b mPOWER. The official, multi-faceted cooperation between the companies started in October 2020. O3b mPOWER is…