Euroconsult has published the 24th edition of “satellites to be built & launched.” The report serves as the gold standard for market intelligence on, you guessed it, building and launching satellites. The European consultancy expects 17,000 satellites to be launched over the next decade. The migration to LEO and deployment of tiny, lightweight satellites are evident in the […]
Due to the data transmission and latency benefits of optical laser communications, it’s not just NASA tinkering with the technology. In China, researchers recently trialed laser-based communications between ground stations and the BeiDou constellation. In the private sector…Mynaric, which makes laser comms systems for the space industry, recently IPO’d on the Nasdaq. The German company […]
Anyone in the market for an FCC satellite license? A federal judge has ordered that a financially underwater company be stripped of its most prized asset: its FCC license. The backstory: Creditors sued Theia Group to recover hundreds of millions they loaned to the six-year-old satellite developer. Per its website, Theia seeks (sought?) to develop “the only […]
Yesterday, the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on the agency’s management of the ISS. OIG’s findings underscore the high stakes riding on success with the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program. CLD will support the development of one or more private space stations that could replace the ISS once it is decommissioned […]
SpaceX could face a “genuine risk” of going bankrupt if it doesn’t iron out kinks in Starship Raptor engine production, Elon Musk reportedly told employees in an email seen by Space Explored. As CNBC reported, SpaceX propulsion and mission/launch operations recently had leadership shakeups. If SpaceX can’t reliably, cost-effectively make enough Raptors, it can’t attain a “Starship flight […]
The FCC is in the process of repurposing chunks of mid-band spectrum to accelerate 5G network rollouts. In the US, satellite operators have historically occupied the C-band, a key mid-band chunk. Long story short, those leases are up. Dec. 5 represents a key deadline for C-band satellite operators. If they clear a predetermined portion of […]
India recently instructed citizens to refrain from signing up for SpaceX’s Starlink service. The catalyst: On Friday, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) tweeted that it noticed Starlink presales are open to potential users in Indian territory. The hang-up: SpaceX needs a DoT license to operate the high-speed, satellite-based broadband internet service in India—and accept Starlink pre-orders. The backstory: India’s DoT has been scrutinizing Starlink […]
Denver-based Voyager Space has a new deal in the works. Yesterday, the holding company said it intends to buy a majority stake in Space Micro, a San Diego-based satellite subsystem maker. The wheeling and dealing is becoming routine—Space Micro is Voyager’s sixth acquisition since it spun up in Oct. 2019. How’s that for flight heritage? Space Micro, started in […]
Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) successfully reached orbit Saturday. The small launcher’s LV0007 vehicle lifted off from a Kodiak, AK, spaceport, with a dummy payload for the US Space Force. “The team’s worked so hard on this for so many years,” Astra cofounder CEO Chris Kemp said on NASASpaceflight’s launch livestream. “We’re just getting started, folks,” he tweeted. LV0008, LV0009, […]
Planet Labs is nearly ready to take its talents to the public markets at a $2.8B valuation. Yesterday, Planet’s C-suite held court with investors to sell the vision. A decade of history in ~60 words: Planet set out to image and index all of Earth every day. The company developed a constellation of 200 satellites, created the […]
Axiom Space will conduct around 25 research experiments on its forthcoming ISS mission, the Houston company said Tuesday. Ax-1’s research portfolio includes senescent cell studies, a two-way hologram demo, and experiments in disciplines that run the gamut from astrophysics to neurology. Ax-1, 101: Axiom Mission 1 launches in 94 days, give or take. Beyond the research bounties it will bring […]
Turion Space has closed a $4.7M seed round of funding. The Irvine, CA-based startup is focused on satellite servicing and space debris removal. Timely raise much? “If we lose the ability to operate in LEO because we let the debris problem get out of control, the crazy growth in space technologies may end up stagnating,” […]
