Broadband
Stories about the broadband industry.
JSX, Hawaiian Airlines Announce Starlink Deals
JSX, a short-haul “hop-on jet service,” announced Thursday that it’s inked a deal with SpaceX to become the first air carrier to adopt Starlink for in-flight connectivity services. JSX flies between Austin, Burbank, Concord/Napa, Dallas-Love Field, Houston-Hobby, Las Vegas, LA, Monterey/Carmel, Oakland/SF, Orange County, Phoenix, Reno/Tahoe, and San Diego. Its fleet spans 77 Embraer 135s…
ISRO to Launch OneWeb Satellites This Year
OneWeb has found another launch provider: NewSpace India, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The two have inked a deal to start launching satellites later this year, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. Left in the lurch The LEO broadband constellation developer was launching with Roscosmos…until March. Since…
NASA Awards Communication Services Project Contracts
NASA has awarded six contracts to LEO broadband operators to support the development and demonstration of near-Earth communications technology. The contracts have a combined total value of $278.5M, with each company expected to “match or exceed” NASA’s investment over the next five years. The awardees: SpaceX, receiving $69.95M to develop Starlink, its LEO broadband constellation.…
Kepler Demonstrates Intersatellite Data Relay
Kepler has successfully demonstrated the ability to communicate between satellites on orbit, the company’s CEO Mina Mitry announced (H/T SpaceNews). Two data-relay terminals aboard satellites launched in January have been sending data packets back and forth since four days after launch, per Mitry. Intersatellite links The elusive tech is a big opportunity for satellite operators…
Beyond Gravity Wins Big in Amazon/Kuiper Launch Deal
Image: Amazon, Arianespace, & Beyond Gravity. Compiled by Andrew Parsonson. Amazon sent shockwaves throughout the space world yesterday. The largest-ever commercial launch deal gave a kick of nitrous to the European space machine. Beyond the headlines: Arianespace won big, snagging its largest single contract ever. But that wasn’t Europe’s only winner: Amazon’s dealmaking included the largest…
Kuiper Finds Its Workhorses
Good morning from Colorado Spring, where we’re writing this at 5:30 am local time. Amazon front-ran Day 2 of Space Symposium with what it claims is “the largest commercial procurement of space launch services in history.” Driving the news Project Kuiper, Amazon’s LEO broadband initiative, has contracted three heavy-lift vehicles for up to 83 launches.…
WaPo: US Has Privately Attributed Hack of Viasat KA-SAT Ground Infrastructure to GRU
US intelligence officials have attributed the hack of a satellite broadband service to the GRU, Russia’s largest military spy agency, the Washington Post reported Thursday. While its spooks may have reached a determination, the US government has not publicly attributed to Russian military hackers. “We are concerned about the apparent use of cyber operations to…
SpaceX Increases Launch and Starlink Prices
ICYMI: SpaceX is hiking up prices for launch, satellite internet, and end user terminals, the company told customers Tuesday (H/T CNBC). The increases are certain to have cascading ripple effects across the space industry, while also affecting the ~250,000 consumers/businesses that use Starlink. The fine text Starlink: The broadband-via-megaconstellation service bumped up the cost of…
A Q&A with @Iridiumboss Matt Desch
Matthew Desch is the CEO of Iridium (NASDAQ:IRDM), a $5.1B satellite operator based in McLean, VA. Payload recently caught up with Desch across town at Satellite 2022. Over the course of an hour, we chatted about (shocker) satellites, constellation strategy, corporate reinvention, Iridium’s moat, “commodity broadband,” Ukraine, dual-use tech, SPACs, and more. There are three…
Euroconsult Releases High Throughput Satellite Report
Projected HTS capacity demand in 2030. Graphic: Euroconsult Euroconsult has released the 6th edition of its report on the High Throughput Satellite (HTS) market. The takeaway: Business is booming. The HTS market has seen major growth since 2019, and that growth is expected to continue booming over the next few years. Euroconsult predicts growth in…
OneWeb and SpaceX Sign Launch Services Agreement
In an absolute plot-twist of a partnership, OneWeb and SpaceX have let bygones be bygones and signed a launch services agreement. OneWeb had an outstanding agreement with Roscosmos through European launcher Arianespace to launch aboard Soyuz rockets. But those satellites became stranded amid sanctions and rising tensions between the West and Russia. A batch of…
Starlink App Sees Downloads Spike in Ukraine
SpaceX has trucked in Starlink terminals to Ukraine to keep the country online during the ongoing war. Over 5,000 terminals are in the country, the Washington Post reported over the weekend. Tesla has complemented these efforts by supplying battery storage systems that can power Starlink dishes, per an internal company email seen by CNBC. SpaceX…
Astranis Completes Final Testing for First Commercial Satellite
Astranis says its first commercial satellite is “ready for launch.” On Wednesday, the SF-based space unicorn said it had cleared all major tests for its first MicroGEO satellite…including the vibe test campaign (vibration/vibroacoustic tests), along with final solar array and antenna deployment tests, propulsion system tests, software tests, and electrical checkouts. In late December, the…
