Satcoms

Spire Global, the New Space company that provides meteorological, maritime, and aviation awareness data from low-Earth orbit, has selected Arianespace’s Vega launch vehicle to loft its LEMUR-2 Cubesats. The multi-launch contract will cover a significant number of CubeSats to be launched on Vega as part of the Small Spacecraft Mission …

Qatar’s Es’hailSat satellite communications company has purchased outright the satellite it has been sharing with Eutelsat – EUTELSAT-25B/Es’hail-1 – taking full control of the satellite now just named Es’hail-1. The purchase comes as the Qatari company awaits the launch later this year of Es’hail-2, built by Japanese satellite manufacturer Mitsubishi …

The Turkish minister for Science, Industry, and Technology, Mustafa Varank, said on 7 August 2018 that the Turkish government will establish the Turkish Space Agency this year in order to coordinate the country’s space activities and manage international cooperation and relations. “The Turkish Space Agency will be founded this year …

Space Systems Loral (SSL), a Maxar Technologies company and a leading satellite manufacturer, has announced that the Merah Putih communications satellite built for Telkom Indonesia, Indonesia’s largest telecom operator, is performing post launch maneuvers according to plan following its successful launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Space Launch Vehicle on …

Uniwise Offshore Limited, a leading offshore support vessel (OSV) operator in the Asia-Pacific, has awarded Thaicom to provide NavaTM, the new high-speed broadband service for the maritime sector. Thaicom’s NavaTM will enhance Uniwise’s operations on their entire fleet of more than 30 vessels. Uniwise Offshore will use Nava enabled high-speed …

Inmarsat has partnered with Indonesian low-cost airline Citilink to provide in-flight connectivity on board all 50 of its Airbus A320 fleet. Inmarsat signed a contract last week with Mahata Aero Teknologi (MAT), an Indonesian wireless technology provider, to deploy Inmarsat’s GX Aviation inflight broadband solution on Citilink’s Airbus A320 fleet. …

Saudi Arabia’s Taqnia Space has contracted with Eutelsat, one of Europe’s largest satellite communications providers, to provide additional satellite capacity for Taqnia’s in-flight connectivity services on board Saudia flights. Taqnia Space signed a multi-year contract with Eutelsat, which includes incremental multi-transponder wide-beam capacity on the EUTELSAT-70B satellite, as well as …

Engineers of the Progress Rocket Space Centre headquartered in the city of Samara are working on a new way of putting nanosatellites into orbit, says Dmitry Baranov, the acting general director of the Centre. According to the new technique, nanosatellites will be delivered to orbit in the transfer compartment of …

Yahsat, the Abu Dhabi-based satellite communications operator, has completed its buyout of Dubai-based Thuraya, a leading mobile satellite services operator, and has also announced the appointment of a new chief executive officer for Thuraya, Ali Al Hashemi. The announcement was made on 5 August 2018 after Etisalat, the largest telecommunications …

Israel’s Gilat is becoming a major presence in the Latin American telecommunications market after it announced a deal with Hispasat, the Spanish satellite communications operator, to help commercialise Hispasat’s Ka-band satellite capacity over Brazil. Gilat and Hispasat will work together to develop the satellite broadband market in Brazil. Hispamar will …