Magazine

I had the unique opportunity to talk to Greg Wyler a month before OneWeb’s descent into bankruptcy, and then a month after the news. It makes for fascinating reading as […]

With LeoSat gone, OneWeb in Chapter 11, two of the major Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) players that had ambitious plans — barring a miraculous phoenix-like rise from the flames — won’t see […]

OneWeb’s bankruptcy follows the demise of LeoSat, creating more fodder for debate on the topic of building successful business models around Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations. Via Satellite spoke to Tom […]

Another consumer-grade, Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation designed to connect billions of unconnected people has slipped through our fingers. This time, it wasn’t a scrappy underdog story, or a brilliant […]

Welcome to the May edition of Via Satellite. As countries around the world are practicing social distancing to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic, I assume a high number of our […]

Since its beginnings, the Chinese space industry has been largely dominated by major state-owned enterprises (SOEs), namely China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and to a lesser extent, China […]

1. Flexibility is First It was one of the leading themes at SATELLITE 2020, driving decisions in virtually every market segment. Players are seeking flexible options, either as a means […]

Somewhere out in rural America, an unhelpful internet service provider representative is making long drives to neighborhoods he will never connect, completely unaware that he may have inspired the catalyst […]

ThinKom is well-known for its performance in the In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) antenna market. Its Ku- and Ka-band, low-profile, high-throughput ThinAir antennas are in use on more than 1,400 commercial aircraft, […]

In March, Steve Collar, CEO of SES, was named our Satellite Executive of the Year for 2019. Collar has been integral in the rejuvenation of SES. 2019 was a banner […]

The plane should have taken off by now. A commercial airplane typically takes about 30 seconds to speed down the runway and lift off into the sky. But when you’re […]

Space is getting more crowded, but the growing risk of a satellite colliding with orbital debris is what economists call “a tragedy of the commons” — it’s no one’s job […]

Space investments by billionaire “geeks for space,” such as Paul Allen and Jeff Bezos, have brought attention to the burgeoning commercial space startup sector. But now the field of investors […]

Agility was one aspect of New Space that On Orbit guests could agree on, as they put the hotly debated term under the microscope during a live podcast recording at […]

The 2019 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-19) left the satellite industry filled with concerns over an uncertain future, as the need for broadband internet grows and multiple competing industries and nations […]

The way we view space could dramatically change during the current decade. For example, by the end of the 2020s, space tourism may be a perfectly normal, thriving business in […]

Fire at vast scale poses enormous challenges. More than 18 million hectares, an area the size of the Netherlands, have been affected across Australia by this season’s emergency-level wildfires. Along […]

With 2019 having drawn to a close, it is timely to look back to identify those developments of greatest significance for the satellite industry for past year. 2019 was an […]

The creation of the U.S. Space Force was a response to the growing use of space by more nations around the globe – and the potential threat that some pose […]

When Oliver Juckenhöfel began his career in the satellite industry in the mid-1990s, commercial and governmental organizations were heavily focused on launching satellites in the most efficient way possible. The […]

3D printing – once the domain of nerdy hobbyists – is gaining momentum across multiple industries including the satellite sector thanks to the efforts of NASA to advance 3D printing […]

If things go according to plan with SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, the satellite industry could soon see the era of constellations made up of tens of thousands of […]

Facing competition from a wave of NewSpace market entrants, satellite operators have to respond by moving to a mixed-orbit model and focusing on broader service delivery, executives said during the […]

The satellite industry comprises individuals from a variety of backgrounds, market segments, and nationalities. So naturally, everyone who attended the annual SATELLITE 2020 conference in Washington, D.C., brought a different […]

The millennial and Gen-X cofounders of many of today’s most buzzworthy small-satellite startups likely didn’t envision the magnitude of launches, or the rollout of megaconstellations, when they began their careers. […]

The next big thing in satellite won’t be limited to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) or one particular frequency or technology. Organizations will need to invest in hybrid solutions — pulling from […]

SATELLITE’s fourth Startup Space competition showcased ten hungry entrepreneurs with ideas ranging from how to design space helmets to how to use Earth Observation (EO) data for global trade. Each […]

The United States Armed Forces have leveraged space-based assets for decades to provide a warfighting advantage, but the evolution of in-orbit operations by adversaries has highlighted the need for the […]

The agency in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that buys commercial satellite services for the U.S. military is working on a new acquisition strategy, aiming to centralize and consolidate […]

Satellite manufacturing giants touted their commitment to agile development and spending on new capabilities like on-orbit refueling at Tuesday’s closing session of SATELLITE 2020, painting a rosy picture of a […]