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New Skies Satellite NV, the private satellite operator already spun off from Intelsat, has contracted with Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for the turnkey construction of its seventh satellite, NSS […]

An unmanned Russian supply Progress rocket blasted off Aug. 6 to link up to the International Space Station. Progress was carrying fuel, technical equipment, food and water for the space […]

Space Media Inc., a subsidiary of SpaceHab Inc. [SPAB], officially solidified its joint venture with RSC Energia Aug. 3. The two companies now are completing their business and marketing plans. […]

A Starsem Soyuz-Fregat rocket carried out the launch of the final two Cluster 2 scientific satellites for the European Space Agency (ESA) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff on Aug. […]

Comsat Corp.’s [CQ] 38-year existence as an independent company came to an end this month when Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] completed its purchase of Comsat, following final approval from the […]

iSky, a Denver, Colo., company that is developing a Ka-band satellite system for two-way Internet access has changed its name to WildBlue Communications, claiming that the name “embodies the frontier […]

A commercial Delta 3 rocket will be launched next week with a simulated payload that The Boeing Co. [BA], the U.S. Air Force and the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research […]

The Arabsat Consortium said it has created a new Internet Division to meet the “overwhelming global demand for high-speed Internet connectivity solutions throughout the Middle East and North Africa.” The […]

Cidera Inc. of Laurel, Md., which specializes in delivering Internet connectivity via satellite, has agreed with start-up company LayerOne Inc. to deploy Cidera’s content delivery service at the neutral network […]

The Japanese Science and Technology Agency plans to spend roughly $457.6 million beginning with the Japanese government’s next fiscal year to develop advanced communications satellites designed for high-speed Internet service, […]

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. [SIRI] said in-orbit testing of its first radio broadcasting satellite, Sirius 1, was successfully completed July 31, with all systems performing to specifications. Sirius is one […]

By Marc Crossman and Aileen Chen Streaming as a way of obtaining data from the Web is becoming increasingly popular. A growing portion of one’s time online is spent streaming–stimulated […]

Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN) and Digital Seas International have signed a three-year contract to provide Renaissance Cruises’ fleet with Internet Cafés. Following a successful trial on one of the Renaissance […]

Last month, ICO-Teledesic Global Ltd., the holding company that controls the satellite assets of telecommunications pioneer Craig McCaw, named Greg Clarke as the new CEO to help bring ICO-Teledesic’s vision […]

NetSat28 and Morning Star Satellite Co. LLC joined PanAmSat Corp. [SPOT] in filing appeals to recover the Ka-band licenses that were revoked by the FCC earlier this year. Between the […]

In the July 27 issue of MOBILE SATELLITE NEWS, we reported that Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB] replaced outgoing Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Pirone with incoming head Garrett Pierce. In that […]

By Rob Fernandez Software has always been an important part of every satellite system. In the early years of the industry, software was written on an as-needed basis, and each […]

After a long, torturous period of being kept on life support, it seems that the time has finally come for the plug to be pulled on Iridium LLC and to […]

Layoffs, Emergency Financing Latest Measures Taken To Keep Company Alive The situation at Orbcomm Global Ltd. [OSC] appears to have gone from bad to worse. The company last week underwent […]

By Peter J. Brown The race is on to uplink data and Internet protocol (IP)-related traffic at a rate far beyond the level attained by video alone. As fiber networks […]

By Theresa Foley Latin America may be in the United States’ backyard, but broadband satellite services will roll out a good distance behind those in North America if the pattern […]

By Gerry Oberst A conceit of some regulatory bodies, especially in the more heavily-congested European countries, is that satellite services are, somehow, just for rural areas. This line of thinking […]

Globalstar L.P. [GSTRF] has introduced service in Russia, beginning the process of bringing mobile satellite phone service to virtually every corner of the vast country, where many communities have little […]

By David Hartshorn Forget carpal-tunnel syndrome. By now, many of us have succumbed to a far more pernicious professional malady: bar-chart saturation. We have become blasé–jaded even–when presented with long […]

As tradition dictates, public broadcaster RAI will have the exclusive Italian TV rights to broadcast the Olympic Games taking place in Sydney this September. However, this time around the Italian […]

US electronics group Motorola has cleared the last hurdle to allow it to pull down satellites orbiting the earth for the bankrupt Iridium mobile phone company, which it backed. Following […]

Spanish Pay-TV group Sogecable recorded a net profit of PTA 345 million (E2.1 million) in the first six months of the year, compared with losses of PTA 1.1 million (E6,611) […]

Following the positive experience of Radio Italia with Video Italia, Italy’s most listened to radio station, Radio Deejay has announced plans to launch its own satellite TV channel. Deejay TV […]

German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere World will finally activate the return channel via the digital decoder d-box this year. According to Robert Blickhan, head of Premiere World’s distribution and retail marketing […]

Lockheed Martin has, as expected, been awarded the contract to a build NSS-6 satellite for New Skies Satellite. NSS-6, from 95 degrees East, will be an A2100AX (launch mass 4650 […]