Month: November 2018

Relativity Space, a 3D printing rocket startup, recently made a notable executive hire. Brandon Pearse, who previously held roles at Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, is now Relativity Space’s Vice President (VP) of avionics and integrated software. According to Relativity Space Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Ellis, Brandon Pearce has impressive avionics development and flight experience....

Thuraya Telecommunications, a subsidiary of the Al Yah Satellite Communications (Yahsat), revealed that the world’s first satellite smartphone, the Thuraya X5-Touch, will be available for commercial distribution in less than a month. The Thuraya X5-Touch runs on the Android Operating System and has a 5.2 inch High Definition (HD) touchscreen. It targets users who frequently...

In the last week of October many were seeing to their pumpkins and making Halloween preparations, while Spacebit Capital was making history. The company took one greater leap for crypto when it launched the world’s first Venture Capital (VC) crypto fund for the space sector. The news broke during the World Investment Forum in Geneva...

Rocket Lab successfully launched its 1st commercial rocket, carrying seven payloads into orbit on Sunday. The mission, named “It’s Business Time,” marks Rocket Lab’s second successful orbital launch and deployment of customer satellites. Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle lifted-off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula at 3:50 UTC. After first reaching orbit...

Gilat Satellite Networks reported its results for the third quarter (Q3) ended Sept. 30. Revenues took a slight dip, as they were $62.8 million for Q3 2018, compared with $69.9 million in Q3 2017. Yet, profitability remained strong is several key areas. Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP) operating income for Q3 2018 increased to $6 million, up 79.6 percent from Q3...

Three African telecom companies have selected the Hughes Jupiter System to power delivery of satellite broadband services for their customers. According to the release, Botswana Telecommunications, Satcom Networks Africa (SatCoNet), and an East African telecommunications company each chose the Jupiter System based on its performance, operational efficiency, and customer experience. Botswana Telecommunications is using the Jupiter System to...

DigitalGlobe, a Maxar Technologies company, completed mapping the Australian continent in high detail using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology. DigitalGlobe produced data layers for PSMA Australia to create Geoscape, a commercial location intelligence dataset about the Australian built environment to help end users make business decisions. PSMA Australia is an organization that offers geospatial...

On the final day of Global MilSatCom, a number of key speakers from Ministry of Defenses (MODs) and armed forces around the world spoke of their visions regarding milsatcom moving forward. The key theme was that many countries now have a new vision for defense, so speakers elaborated on how satellite plays a role in...

A report in USA Today, cable and satellite TV providers lost about 1.1 million subscribers during the July to September period, the largest quarterly loss ever. It is also the first time the industry lost more than 1 million subscribers in a quarter, according to media and telecommunications research firm MoffettNathanson. After Dish Network reported its...

Iceye, an Earth observation company creating a large Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite constellation, is launching the company’s second SAR satellite, ICEYE-X2, into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on Spaceflight‘s SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission. The mission is currently targeted to launch on Nov. 19 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9...