E-letter: News Feed

Canadian satellite operator Telesat announced Tuesday that it contracted Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to build a new demonstration satellite named LEO 3, providing its first update on the development of […]

Inmarsat CEO Rajeev Suri will step down from his role with the close of the Viasat acquisition, Inmarsat announced Friday. Suri has been nominated to serve on Viasat’s board of […]

Japanese space robotics startup GITAI has raised $30 million in a Series B extension round, the company announced May 25. GITAI is headquartered in Japan and has a U.S. subsidiary. […]

EchoStar and aviation connectivity provider SkyFive completed a series of flight tests demonstrating dual satellite and terrestrial connectivity for command and control (C2) of a drone with Airbus. The tests […]

Eutelsat has won a new broadcast capacity deal in the U.S. Orby Elevate has selected the Eutelsat 117 West A satellite for the distribution of its first major mainstream English […]

Planet Labs is teaming up with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency to help in the battle against climate change. The organizations plan to build a regional satellite data-driven […]

Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat is on its way to close after clearing a review by the European Commission. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this month, […]

ST. LOUIS — As commercial companies increasingly put more computing power on their satellites and related systems, there needs to be a commitment by industry and users to bolster the […]

Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space tourism company, returned to flight on Thursday with a successful crewed mission to the edge of space. The mission — Unity 25 — was staffed […]

BlackSky Technology and Spire Global are partnering on a Maritime Custody Service that combines BlackSky’s satellite imagery and Spire’s radio frequency (RF) tracking into an offering that can monitor vessels […]

Astranis successfully hit a milestone with its first satellite, completing an end-to-end test of its payload, connecting to remote user terminals in Alaska. The satellite, Arcturus, is the first Astranis […]

ST. LOUIS — Earth observation data would be useful to the Border Patrol and its agents in the field to improve situational awareness around things like washed out trails and […]

Fleet Space Technologies has completed a successful Series C funding round, raising a further $50 million Australian dollars ($33.14 million), the company announced May 24. The new funding has been […]

ST. LOUIS—As space becomes increasingly competitive, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is helping its Defense Department partners keep tabs on the space domain, the agency’s director said on Monday. “And […]

Rocket Lab, Launcher, and Stratolaunch have won bids to purchase assets from Virgin Orbit, according to bankruptcy filings released Tuesday. The auction took place on May 22, and the sale […]

Arctic Space Technologies will construct a satellite network portal (SNP) for OneWeb, a hyperscale satellite ground station installation at the Arctic Space Technologies’ Space Center in Piteå in Northern Sweden. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded four contracts aimed at flying synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in formation to demonstrate novel imagery collection techniques and enable the […]

The Viasat and Inmarsat merger has secured another regulatory approval to move forward, this time from the FCC. The FCC issued an order on May 19 approving the transaction, stating […]

Gogo is rolling out a new electronically steered antenna (ESA) for business aviation to enable broadband from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, FDX. It is the second antenna in its Gogo […]

Inmarsat has signed a new partnership as it looks to build its presence in the IoT space. FreeWave Technologies, an IoT solutions provider, has become a distribution partner for Inmarsat’s […]

ABS is expanding its presence in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The company announced May 21 that it has a new teleport partner in Cyprus, Cyta, which […]

President Biden has nominated Anna M. Gomez for the empty spot commissioner spot on the FCC, the White House announced Monday.  Gomez is a telecommunications attorney who serves as a […]

The On Orbit podcast has reached 100 episodes! Thank to our listeners for tuning in over the past three years for engaging conversations with the people driving the business of […]

SpaceX’s Saturday launch lofted satellites for both Iridium and OneWeb. The mission deployed five spare satellites for Iridium’s Low-Earth Orbit constellation, and 19 more OneWeb satellites.  Both operators confirmed post-launch […]

This is the second of a two-part series analyzing the value of edge computing in space by the Boston Consulting Group. Read Part One: Size of the Prize: How Will Edge […]

This is the second of a two-part series analyzing the value of edge computing in space by the Boston Consulting Group. Read Part One: Size of the Prize: How Will […]

Blue Origin will now land astronauts on the surface of the Moon, as the Jeff Bezos-owned company won the second NASA human landing system award on Friday. It is a […]

Inmarsat has ordered three small Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites from Swissto12 for the eighth-generation of its L-band network. The three I-8 satellites will be based on Swissto12’s HummingSat satellite platform […]

German space startup Reflex Aerospace has booked a slot on a SpaceX mission to launch its demonstration satellite in fall 2024. Reflex also expanded its seed funding round with a […]

Measat has made a significant broadband commitment to Malaysia’s military personnel. The company announced May 17 that it will be providing its CONNECTme NOW satellite broadband services for free under […]