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There is a new sector emerging within the space industry that could utterly revolutionise the satellite sector. On-Orbit servicing could be the biggest advancement the industry has seen yet as it could bring with it the capabilities to tackle space debris, to repair operational satellites and even upgrade them, reducing the need for new satellites and addressing some of the industry’s greatest challenges. Here, BusinessCom Networks offers up its view on on-orbit servicing.

UAE’s Yahsat is looking at providing satellite connectivity for managing networked devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) in a bid to ensure growing revenues in the coming years.

Federal State Unitary Enterprise Experimental Design Bureau FAKEL (hereafter referred to as EDB Fakel) is one of the leading companies in Russia and in the world, having a 55-year experience in development of Electric Propulsion Systems (EPS), and more than a 40-year flight experience in Electric Propulsion Subsystems based on Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPT), which were successfully used for station-keeping purposes aboard such spacecraft as Meteor and Meteor-Priroda in the 70s, and which have been used aboard spacecraft (S/C) of the Kosmos and Luch family since 1982, as well as aboard Gals and Express since 1994.

Last month ex-deputy prime minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin was appointed Director General the Roscosmos Corporation by Vladimir Putin, replacing Igor Komarov, who had headed the agency since 2015. Mr. Rogozin has overseen Russia’s space industry since 2011. He was placed under US sanctions over the Ukrainian crisis some years ago.

Hong Kong's AsiaSat has voiced its deep concern over the Communications Authority’s (CA) decision to reallocate the 3.4-3.7 GHz band, the lower C-Band frequency in Hong Kong, from Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) to mobile service (5G) and the subsequent proposal of two exclusion zones as a potential solution.

After the failure of Angosat-1 shortly after its launch late last year, Angola is again partnering with Russia to build and launch Angosat-2 by 2020. Angola’s first communications satellite, Angosat-1, failed shortly after reaching orbit. It was launched in December 2017 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board a Zenit 3F rocket. Russia’s RSC Energia, a subsidiary of the state-run space industry player Roscosmos, built the satellite.

SES’s Satellite Monitor study suggests that satellites are playing a critical role in bridging the digital divide in Africa, with SES providing 2.7 million Ugandans with satellite television.

SES announced that it has successfully launched SES-12 to serve the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, increasing the capacity to provide connectivity for mobile, video, fixed data and government customers.

After a troubled launch earlier this year, Yahsat's Al Yah-3 communications satellite is now operational, and it is ready to propel the UAE-based company into new markets.

Israel’s Spacecom, the troubled operator of the AMOS fleet of communications satellites, has postponed its U.S.$112 million contract with Space Systems Loral (SSL) to build the AMOS-8 satellite. Instead, Spacecom has come to an interim agreement with SSL and has a 30 day extension to raise the necessary funds for the initial down payment that will see the contract reinstated and work begun on the satellite.