Globecomm will look to expand the reach of its DTH video footprint across sub-Saharan Africa and Europe through Telesat‘s high throughput satellite. Globecomm said Thursday its use of Telstar 12 VANTAGE‘s Ku-band coverage and power will help expand the company’s geographic coverage and services for customers in the media, maritime, government and Internet of Things markets. “Globecomm and Telesat […] More

Telesat has selected Space Systems Loral, a subsidiary of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, to produce a communications satellite for the satellite operator’s infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region. The Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite will incorporate C- and Ku-band transponders and combine broad regional beams and high-throughput spot beams to help expand the company’s Asia Pacific […] More

Planet Labs has conducted a ground demonstration that validated technologies enabling connectivity between low Earth orbit satellites and in-space communication satellites operated by the government solutions business of Telesat and the space and defense business of SES. Planet said Friday the demonstration was part of a subcontract it had received in 2022 from Telesat Government Solutions and SES Space & Defense for NASA's Communications Services Project, which seeks to evaluate the feasibility of using commercial satellite communications to support future NASA missions.

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NASA has deployed a set of four small satellites to low Earth orbit aboard Rocket Lab‘s Electron launch vehicle to test autonomous spacecraft swarm technologies in space. The 6U-sized CubeSats lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and will demonstrate their ability to conduct maneuver planning, communications networking, relative navigation and autonomous positioning […] More

James Shaw, a retired U.S. Navy commander, has been appointed chief commercial officer of OneWeb Technologies, a provider of secure satellite communications application offerings. In his new role, Shaw will conduct the development and implementation of OneWeb Technologies’ commercialization strategy, the Houston, Texas-based enterprise announced on Tuesday. “Mr. Shaw is an established commercial leader with extensive knowledge […] More

Satellite imagery provider Planet has agreed to collaborate with Saint Louis University under a contract that grants a geospatial research group access to the company’s data. Opening up Planet’s resources to the eight academic institutions that comprise Taylor Geospatial Institute, the new multi-year contract constitutes Planet’s most expansive direct university endeavor and is slated to boost […] More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has named the teams that will work on a program that aims to develop an intersatellite optical communications terminal for enabling satellite constellations to communicate in space. Eleven teams from academia and the commercial industry received other transaction agreements to perform phase 1 research and development work for the […] More

The shortage of microchip supply due to the COVID-19 pandemic is slowing down the progress of satellite efforts under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a program manager told SpaceNews Thursday.  Stephen Forbes, Blackjack program manager, said DARPA is eyeing to launch 12 satellites into low Earth orbit by 2022 but the disruption in the […] More

Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of the military division at Lockheed Martin’s space business and a previous Wash100 awardee, said bringing in nontraditional contractors and partnering with other companies helped Lockheed secure a contract from the Space Development Agency to build satellites for the Transport Layer, SpaceNews reported Monday.

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A subsidiary of ST Engineering North America has demonstrated multiterminal bandwidth sharing via a return link system that works to expand the beam hopping capacity of Telesat's low-Earth orbit satellites.

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Los Angeles-based aerospace firm Relativity Space has raised $140M in a round of Series C financing led by technology investment company Bond and venture capital firm Tribe Capital.

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The Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s request to lower the orbit of its proposed Starlink broadband satellites as part of efforts to expand the distance between competing constellations and increase space environment safety, SpaceNews reported Friday.

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