Category: News

Satellite lasercom builder Mynaric, its 2020 revenue scuttled by German government’s China export ban, plans U.S. IPO

Satellite lasercom builder Mynaric, its 2020 revenue scuttled by German government’s China export ban, plans U.S. IPO

Apr 9, 2021

UPDATE April 9: This story was updated to include additional comment from Mynaric.
PARIS — German laser communications terminal manufacturer Mynaric AG, which is pinning much of its near-term market prospects on the U.S. Defense Department, plans to ask shareholders for a capital raise to fund a public stock offering in the United States.
Mynaric, which is still a startup with little revenue, already trades on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange but wants to ride the wave of interest in space-based technologies among U.S. investors . . .
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Incoming head of French space agency, CNES: Top priority is the challenge from Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba

Incoming head of French space agency, CNES: Top priority is the challenge from Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba

Apr 8, 2021

PARIS — The incoming new president of the French space agency, CNES, passed his examination by the French legislature, surmounting criticism of his “atypical” background as a researcher and mathematician with stints at IBM and France’s CNRS research center, with no experience in the space sector.
Given his professional history, including a Master of Science and a doctorate in computer science, it was not surprising that Philippe Baptiste said his highest priority at CNES would be to confront the challenge posed by Amazon, Microsoft . . .
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SpaceX has reduced production cost of Starlink phased-array terminals by > 50%, to <$1,500, Shotwwell says

SpaceX has reduced production cost of Starlink phased-array terminals by > 50%, to <$1,500, Shotwwell says

Apr 7, 2021

PARIS — The SpaceX Starlink broadband satellite service began beta testing in October 2020 with user terminals that cost $3,000 and has since been brought down production cost to less than $1,500, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said.
Shotwell’s remarks, made April 6 during the Satellite 2021 LEO Digital Forum, answers one of many business-model issues surrounding Starlink, which Shotwell said now counts 1,320 of its 260-kilogram Version 1.0 satellites in orbit.
The Starlink beta testing asks users to pay . . .
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Satellite ground antenna manufacturers Intellian, ThinKom say constellations will cause systemic stresses

Satellite ground antenna manufacturers Intellian, ThinKom say constellations will cause systemic stresses

Apr 6, 2021

PARIS — ThinKom and Intellian, two successful satellite ground antenna manufacturers whose business will profit from constellations of low-orbiting satellites, warned of the threat of signal interference and collision risk with so much traffic in such close quarters.
They also said that the goal of building consumer antennas for $300 or less will remain elusive given the demands placed on this hardware to avoid signal interference.
“Antenna components by themselves are declining in cost because you are producing in massive scales now because a LEO . . .
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Are micro-launchers condemned to get bigger or fail? It looks that way, says Arianespace

Are micro-launchers condemned to get bigger or fail? It looks that way, says Arianespace

Apr 5, 2021

PARIS — What’s a micro launch vehicle? It’s a medium-lift rocket that hasn’t yet been mugged by market realities that force it to become larger.
That’s the opinion of launch-service provider Arianespace Chief Executive  Stephane Israel, whose company has to confront the issue starting right now.
Arianespace is the sole operator at Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport, situated on French territory on the northeast coast of South America. The center is now trying to attract one or more micro . . .
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India Satcom Industry Association, taking arms against a sea of regulations, has the government’s sympathies

India Satcom Industry Association, taking arms against a sea of regulations, has the government’s sympathies

Apr 5, 2021

PARIS — India has inaugurated the Satcom Industry Association- India (SIA-India) industry association with words of encouragement from government officials who acknowledged that India’s regulatory thicket still presents a formidable challenge.
You know you’ve got headwinds when government officials sympathize with how tough you’re job will be given the regulatory environment, particularly for broadband deployment.
“It is heartening to see the new-wave companies and private organizations venturing into the business of satellite communication,” said V.K. Saraswat, a member of the government’s . . .
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Cart before the horse: SpaceX Starlink solicitation in India without a license draws protest from broadband forum

Cart before the horse: SpaceX Starlink solicitation in India without a license draws protest from broadband forum

Apr 5, 2021

PARIS — Nineteen years after its founding, SpaceX continues to show enough brass to outfit a marching band. We’ll see how it plays in India, the world’s largest potentially addressable satellite broadband market.
For the past several weeks, SpaceX Starlink has been advertising in India, and on its own website, that its consumer broadband network, Starlink, is coming imminently to India for beta testing.
It invites prospective Indian subscribers to lay down $99, or about 7,250 Indian rupees, as a refundable deposit. This . . .
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Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, Astra: 3 well-funded smallsat launchers with different ideas on the market

Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, Astra: 3 well-funded smallsat launchers with different ideas on the market

Apr 2, 2021

PARIS — Three cash-rich U.S. small-satellite launch providers look at the same market and see different things, starting with the basics, like demand.
“We’ll begin monthly launch operations in the fours quarter of this year and our objective is to begin daily space operations by 2025,” said Chris Kemp, founder and chief executive of Astra, about to go public in a SPAC deal with Holicity Inc. that values the company at $2.1 billion: https://bit.ly/3jajgco

Inmarsat v Netherlands government C-band GMDSS frequency dispute heads to court May 11

Inmarsat v Netherlands government C-band GMDSS frequency dispute heads to court May 11

Apr 2, 2021

PARIS — A Dutch tribunal has scheduled a May 11 hearing on Inmarsat’s protest of a Dutch government decision to force satellite fleet operator Inmarsat to stop using C-band spectrum from a site in the northern Netherlands that provides global maritime distress and safety service (GMDSS) to the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Inmarsat on March 26 served a writ on the government after months of negotiations failed to unblock the situation. The Netherlands’s National Frequency Plan calls for an auction of the C-band spectrum, with September 2022 . . .
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SES: Whistleblower testimony will prove our case that Intelsat violated C-band proceeds deal

SES: Whistleblower testimony will prove our case that Intelsat violated C-band proceeds deal

Apr 1, 2021

PARIS — SES said it has secured whistleblower testimony from an unnamed former Intelsat manager that will back SES”s claim that Intelsat management colluded to cheat SES out of $450 million in C-band relocation proceeds.
Raising the temperature of its complaint, SES asked Intelsat’s bankruptcy court to stop approval of a planned Intelsat reorganization, saying the plan cannot move forward given the threat that the post-Chapter 11 Intelsat would need to pay SES between $450 million and $1.8 billion.
SES argues . . .
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