Month: November 2018

The first satellite with Accion Systems engines launched from New Zealand last week. The satellite launched, Irvine 01, was built by high school students and will take pictures of Venus and other objects. “It’s a huge milestone, across the board,” Accion Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Natalya Bailey said before the launch. Yet, the startup is...

Spot, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar and a provider of satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies, revealed that Spot has reached a new milestone, surpassing one billion messages transmitted and more than 6,100 rescue incidents initiated worldwide. Spot is a satellite communications device, and has a growing base of subscribers located around the world....

Telenor Satellite’s Ka-band maritime business is seeing strong growth as the benefits of having Ka-band capacity have started to kick in. Telenor Director of Datacomms Products and Services Jan Hetland told Via Satellite that its Ka-band maritime business is quickly matching what it had in Ku-band. While Telenor only launched Ka-band services two years ago,...

Airbus has been selected by Eutelsat to build two Hotbird next generation telecommunications satellites, which will replace the current spacecraft and enhance capacity at Eutelsat’s position of 13 degrees East. The two satellites aim to deliver improved performances over Europe and the Middle East. These new satellites are aiming to ensure full service continuity over the...

The SSO-A: SmallSat Express launch originally schedule for Nov. 19 has been delayed. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would have launched 64 smallsats from more than 30 different countries. “Standing down from Monday’s launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to conduct additional pre-flight inspections. Once complete, we will confirm a new launch date,” SpaceX...

China launched two new BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) satellites into space on a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. Liftoff took place at at 2:07 a.m. local time on Nov. 19. Previously, China launched a set of twin BeiDou satellites on Oct. 15. Following its October launch,...

Dish has appointed Atilla Tinic to the role of Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Information Officer (CIO). Tinic joins Dish from CenturyLink where he had served as SVP of Information Technology (IT). Tinic also held the role of CIO at Level 3 Communications prior to its 2017 acquisition by CenturyLink. He will report to John...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved SpaceX‘s request to deploy over 7,000 satellites for its Starlink constellation, which aims to provide broadband internet services. The Commission granted SpaceX’s application with certain conditions, authorizing SpaceX to construct, deploy, and operate this new very Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation using V-band frequencies. The Commission also granted SpaceX’s...

The Mitsubishi Electric-built Es’hail-2 communications satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 3:46 p.m. EST on Nov. 15. The launch was conducted by SpaceX using a Falcon 9 rocket. Following completion of in-orbit tests, the satellite is scheduled to be delivered to Doha-based Qatar Satellite Company Es’hailSat in January 2019....

Helios Wire, a satellite-enabled Internet of Things (IOT) connectivity company, revealed that its Pathfinder II satellite is scheduled to launch aboard Spaceflight‘s SSO-A SmallSat Express mission, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Nov. 19, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. This is the first satellite in a constellation of up to 28 smallsats that...