E-letter: Briefs

Juvare and Iceye announced a partnership on Thursday to provide situational awareness and insights to emergency management agencies, insurers, and government organizations worldwide.  Iceye’s satellite solutions will be integrated into […]

BlueHalo successfully demonstrated its two-terminal long-haul, multi-orbit laser communication system, the company announced on March 20.  The demonstration involved two laser communication optical terminals completing pointing, acquisition, and tracking sequences […]

Verizon is expanding texting capabilities for Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 smartphones that allow customers with these phones to send text messages to any other customer device via […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded SSC expanded satellite ground station contracts to support the Copernicus program, the company announced Wednesday.  These new contracts add SSC’s Punta Arenas Satellite Station […]

Spire Global introduced two AI weather models: AI-WX and AI-S2S, developed on the Nvidia Omniverse Blueprint for Earth-2 platform, Spire announced on March 18. These models utilize Spire’s satellite data […]

Globalstar opened a new satellite operations control center (SOCC) at its Covington, Louisiana headquarters on March 17. Globalstar said the SOCC represents a “key investment,” enhancing satellite fleet management and […]

Pixxel’s three Firefly hyperspectral satellites have successfully captured and downlinked their ‘first light’ images, the company announced on March 18. Launched in January 2025 on SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission, the three […]

Synspective Inc. announced on Tuesday it is opening two subsidiaries in the United States: Synspective USA HD, Inc., a holding company, and Synspective USA, Inc., an operating company in Colorado. […]

Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket, deploying five satellites for Kinéis, a French IoT constellation operator. The “High Five” mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, […]

Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks plans to resign from his seat on the commission this spring, Starks said in a statement on Tuesday. Starks did not provide a reason for his […]

SatixFy Communications secured an approximately $10 million order from MDA Space for engineering models, space-grade chips, and additional engineering work, SatixFy announced on Monday. This includes a purchase order for […]

Firefly Aerospace achieved all objectives for Blue Ghost Mission 1, following the commercial Moon landing on March 2, the company announced on March 17.  The mission operated for more than […]

SpaceX launched 74 payloads on the Transporter-13 mission on Friday in its second rideshare mission of 2025.  The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg […]

Orion Satellite Systems’ Horizon platform has become Horizon AI, bringing AI-powered data forecasting to satellite connectivity to its customers. The company said the next-generation enhancement allows customers to better anticipate […]

Sidus Space and Warpspace signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a joint venture aimed at advancing satellite communications and mission operations, Sidus Space announced on March 12. Warpspace […]

Intelsat is supplying a multi-layer communication system (MLCS) to the Sheriff’s Office in Cochise County, Arizona to enable border security operations.  The MLCS combines Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite service with […]

Rocket Lab USA intends to acquire German optical communications company Mynaric in a $75 million deal that would bring a key supplier in house, expand its international footprint, and, it […]

Space42 and Viasat signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore ecosystem partnership options for developing a 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) initiative, Space42 announced on March 11.  Space42 is a […]

Bharti Airtel agreed to bring SpaceX’s Starlink internet services to customers in India, Airtel announced on March 11.  Airtel said this is the first agreement SpaceX has signed to receive […]

Telesat signed new capacity agreements with Orange and Space Norway for Telesat Lightspeed Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) connectivity services, Telesat announced on March 11. Space Norway will incorporate a multi-Gbps capacity […]

Sky Perfect JSAT signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space for a Geostationary (GEO) communications satellite, JSAT-32, the companies announced on March 10. JSAT-32 will operate in Ku- and Ka […]

ST Engineering iDirect introduced Intuition Unbound, a ground segment implementation with a consumption-based model, the company announced on March 10. ST Engineering iDirect said Intuition Unbound can lower market entry […]

Astrum Mobile selected Swissto12 to manufacture the NEASTAR-1 Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite to operate as a dedicated direct-to-device (D2D) platform for 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) services, Astrum Mobile announced Monday. […]

SpaceX suffered another unsuccessful Starship test on Thursday as the upper stage broke apart in flight, with debris from the event impacting air traffic.  This marks two dramatic test failures […]

The Digital Intermediate Frequency Interoperability Consortium (DIFI) completed work on version 1.2.1 of its interoperability standard, DIFI announced on March 6.  The new standard builds on version 1.2.0, which introduced […]

The Ariane 6 completed its first commercial mission on Tuesday, carrying the CSO-3 satellite for the French Defense Procurement and Technology Agency (DGA) for the Air and Space Force’s Space […]

Planet Labs will work with Anthropic to utilize the company’s large language model Claude for analyzing Earth observation data, Planet announced on March 6.  The partnership will combine Planet’s daily […]

Hughes Network Systems has won a new deal with Delta Air Lines to provide in-flight connectivity (IFC) for select new delivery Airbus 350 and Airbus 321neo aircraft.  Hughes will equip […]

BlackSky Technology grew revenue 8% year-over-year in 2024 and reached new record revenue — but this growth was considerably less than the 45% growth the company realized in 2023.  The […]

Inmarsat Maritime has signed a new deal in the maritime arena with Toei Reefer Line which will see Inmarsat Maritime install NexusWave onboard the company’s factory vessels to support crew […]