Tag: satellites
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Spaceflight and Rocket Lab will put a Japanese shooting-star satellite into orbit
An artist’s conception shows the ALE-2 shooting-star satellite in orbit. (ALE / Spaceflight Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s handling the pre-launch logistics for a Japanese satellite that’s designed to spray artificial shooting stars into the sky. Tokyo-based ALE’s spacecraft is just one of seven satellites due to be sent into orbit from New Zealand as…
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Switching from asteroid mining to blockchain: ConsenSys Space unveils TruSat satellite tracker
ConsenSys Space says TruSat will let amateur observers contribute to satellite tracking via an app. (TruSat / ConsenSys Space Illustration) WASHINGTON, D.C. — A year after taking over the assets of a Redmond, Wash.-based asteroid mining company known as Planetary Resources, ConsenSys Space has unveiled its first project: an app-based system that makes use of…
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Amazon exec Dave Limp expects Project Kuiper satellites to boost sales and cloud
Dave Limp, Amazon’s devices and services chief, chats with GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop during the GeekWire Summit. (Photo by Dan DeLong for GeekWire) Why is Amazon planning to put thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit? Part of the motivation is to expand Amazon’s footprint in online sales and cloud computing services, says Dave Limp,…
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Amazon’s Project Kuiper and OneWeb raise the curtain higher on their satellite plans
An artist’s conception shows a OneWeb satellite in space. (OneWeb Satellites Illustration) Filings with the Federal Communications Commission are providing fresh details about the plans being laid by Amazon and OneWeb to set up networks of satellites for global broadband internet access. OneWeb, for example, is seeking FCC approval for up to 1.5 million ground…
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Intelsat sues OneWeb broadband satellite venture over a mega-deal that went sour
An artist’s conception, released during the time when Intelsat was considering what would have been effectively a merger with OneWeb, shows a OneWeb satellite in orbit. (OneWeb Illustration) One of the world’s biggest satellite operators, Intelsat, is accusing the OneWeb broadband satellite venture and its biggest investor, SoftBank, of breach of contract, fraud and conspiracy…
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SpaceX wants to rearrange its Starlink satellites for faster broadband ramp-up
An artist’s conception shows the deployment of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (SpaceX Illustration) SpaceX is seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission for changes in the spacing of its Starlink broadband satellites, in order to extend internet services to a wider swath of the United States on a faster timetable. “This adjustment will accelerate coverage to…
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OneWeb targets the Arctic for the kickoff of its satellite broadband service in 2020
An artist’s conception shows one of OneWeb’s satellites in orbit. (OneWeb Satellites Illustration) OneWeb says it’ll start delivering broadband internet service to the Arctic via satellite in 2020, turning the “Last Frontier” into a new frontier for data beamed from orbit. The London-based company provided fresh details about its market rollout today, saying that it…
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SpaceX reports a ‘bug’ in its alert system after ESA shifts spacecraft to avoid Starlink satellite collision
A computer-generated diagram shows the projected orbital paths of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite and the European Space Agency’s Aeolus satellite. (ESA Graphic via Twitter) The European Space Agency says it performed a collision avoidance maneuver over the Labor Day weekend to head off a potential crash between its Aeolus wind-measuring satellite and one of SpaceX’s Starlink…
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SpaceX sweetens the deal for satellite rideshare launches, and Starlink is in on it
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket executes a 64-satellite launch for Seattle-based Spaceflight in December 2018. Now SpaceX is planning rideshare missions without Spaceflight’s involvement. (SpaceX Photo) Three weeks after announcing that it’s getting into the rideshare market for launching small satellites, SpaceX slashed its prices by more than half – and said it’ll be offering rideshare…
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Astranis reserves a ride with SpaceX for satellite that’ll boost broadband in Alaska
Artwork shows Astranis’ high-throughput telecommunications microsatellite in orbit. (Astranis Illustration) A California-based startup called Astranis Space Technologies has signed a deal with SpaceX for the launch of its first geostationary satellite, which is due to widen Alaska’s access to broadband internet service in 2021. The deal calls for SpaceX to launch Astranis’ microsatellite as a…