News

Venezuela’s only geostationary communications satellite, VENESAT-1 (also known as Simon Bolivar-1), has been tumbling in an unusable orbit since 13 March 2020 after it made a number of manoeuvres, presumably at the direction of its Venezuelan operator, according to Space News who spoke with commercial space situational awareness (SSA) providers ExoAnalytic Solutions …

Adapted from a Twitter Thread by astronaut Anne McClain One thing astronauts have to be good at: living in confined spaces for long periods of time. Here are some tips for all who find yourself in a similar scenario. Nearly 20 years successfully living on the International Space Station and more than 50 flying in space did not happen …

Konnect Africa, a subsidiary of Eutelsat Communications, Schoolap and Flash Services announced on 23 March 2020 a Memorandum of Understanding to connect several thousand schools across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the Internet as part of the Schoolap project. It aims to provide schools with high speed internet …

Intelsat has selected SpaceX as its launch partner for Intelsat 40e (IS-40e). The launch is planned for 2022 on SpaceX’s American-built Falcon 9 launch vehicle. “We look forward to working with SpaceX to launch Intelsat 40e in 2022,” said Intelsat Chief Services Officer Mike DeMarco. “IS-40e will join the Intelsat Epic …

Global mobile satellite communications firm Inmarsat announced on 18 February 2020 that it will bring its world-leading maritime, aviation, and enterprise connectivity solutions to customers based in Saudi Arabia through new partner agreements. The company additionally announced that it has secured new spectrum licences to deliver both its narrow-band (L-band) …

In Europe and around the world, we’ve been getting used to a different way of living in recent weeks. On Thursday, 26 March, ESA and long-time partner Asteroid Day will host #SpaceConnectsUs – a chance to connect across borders and hear from space explorers, artists, and scientists about how to …

Space Café WebTalks is SpaceWatch.Global’s new webinar series featuring global space experts. This inaugural Space Café WebTalk on 31 March 2020 at 4pm CEST will feature Professor Moriba Jah, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, in conversation with …

Korean cyber start-up S2W LAB announced on 20 March 2020 that it has signed a contribution agreement with Interpol to support Dark Web data analytics. The company is providing data analysis of Dark Web data for the next year. Due to the difficulty of tracking across the Dark Web it has emerged as a …

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX’s February 2019 application to deploy up to one million user terminals throughout the United States for the Starlink satellite communications constellation. In a public notice posted on the FCC’s website on 18 March 2020, the US government agency granted SpaceX a …

Responsible for spacecraft orbiting Earth, the Sun and exploring the Solar System, teams at ESA’s ESOC mission control deal with in-flight challenges every day, from faulty hardware, problematic software and hazardous space debris to computer viruses that could affect ground stations. So how do they keep missions flying when a …