Via Satellite turned 30 years old this year; to celebrate, we decided to give ourselves the task of listing what we think are the key 30 events to impact our industry over the last three decades. Obviously, it is not an easy process and there were many different events considered. But, having examined the archives, and done an extensive user survey, these are our final choices for the key 30 events between 1986 and 2016 in the satellite industry.
THE CHALLENGER DISASTER
Thirty years ago, space was front-page news across the world and people in homes all over the globe would marvel at Space Shuttle launches. On January 28, 1986, tragedy struck when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into flight leading to the deaths of all members of the crew.
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It was a tragedy that sent shockwaves not only across the space community, but also around the world. It showed that, while space is exciting and glamorous, there are risks involved. This year, NASA held a ceremony on January 28, 30 years after the tragedy to commemorate those lives lost in space.
VIA SATELLITE’S FIRST ISSUE
Via Satellite launched in 1986 and it has since seen and reported on many of the changes that have impacted the industry down the years. Bucky Marshall, the then publisher of Via Satellite, recalls an unlikely person to thank for the name.
It took two years of effort (1984-1986) to put the plan together and get the first issue published. Marshall admits his most chilling memory of those early years was learning of the Challenger shuttle disaster the day they had signed the deal with PPI.
LAUNCH OF ARIANE 4
Arianespace has been a European satellite success story for many decades. The launch of the first Ariane 4 was a major event on 15 June 1988. Jean-Michel Desobeau, who at the time was the payload preparation facilities manager at the Guiana Space Center for Arianespace, was there at the successful launch.
BIRTH OF PANAMSAT
PanAmSat 1 launched on the Ariane 4, and stands alone as a significant event in the satellite industry. Fred Landman, former CEO and president of PanAmSat, admits everyone thought PanAmSat’s chances of making it was “a million to one shot.” PanAmSat spent the first few years trying to get a country to coordinate with it, and finally prevailed in Peru.
FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL
One of the biggest news stories of the 1980s was the fall of the Berlin Wall. PanAmSat was at the sharp end of covering these momentous historical events. Flyaway antennas accessing PanAmSat followed the news into Czechoslovakia, Poland and across Eastern Europe.
ADVENT OF HD
One of the great innovations of television over the last decade has been the move from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD). In February 1993, an advisory committee reported that a digital HDTV system was achievable. Seven companies and nine institutions joined together in a “grand alliance” to develop a final digital ATV system.
INTELSAT 708 LAUNCH FAILURE
In February 1996, the Intelsat 708 satellite launched via a Chinese Long March rocket and crashed shortly after takeoff into a nearby village. The failed launch also had far reaching effects politically, as satellite and launch vehicle technology became subject to much stricter regulations.
FIRST PROTON COMMERCIAL LAUNCH
In April 1996, a Proton rocket launched an SES satellite into space, heralding a new era in the launch market. This was the first commercial launch of a private satellite for a Western enterprise from a former communist country.
IRIDIUM: THE FALL BEFORE THE RISE
Iridium was one of the most high profile satellite companies to enter into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in 1999. Bob Kinzie, who was Iridium’s chairman at the time, said the technology was brilliant but the original business plan was flawed.
PRIVATIZATION OF MAJOR INDUSTRY PLAYERS
At the start of the last millennium, Eutelsat, Inmarsat and Intelsat embarked on privatization. Giuliano Berretta, the ex-CEO of Eutelsat, admitted that privatization “was his first priority” when elected to lead the company.
LAUNCH OF SATELLITE RADIO
At the start of the last millennium, the hot new market for satellite was satellite radio, and players such as XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio created quite a stir. Hugh Panero, the ex-CEO of XM Radio, believes that if either company had started six months earlier or later, they probably would not have got off the ground. Today the merged SiriusXM has more than 30 million subscribers.
LAUNCH OF FIRST CUBESATS
In late June 2003, the Eurockot launch vehicle launched a number of small satellites into orbit, including the Danish AAU CubeSat, a student satellite project at the University of Aalborg.
BRAZILIAN SPACE AGENCY ALCANTARA VL3 LAUNCH FAILURE
In 2003, the Brazilian Space Agency’s VL3 rocket exploded on the Launchpad in Alcantara killing 21 technicians who had been working on the launch.
FOUNDING OF DISHTV IN INDIA
DishTV in 2003 kickstarted the revolution of satellite TV in India. Jawahar Goel, chairman and managing director of Zee Television, says DishTV demonstrated that DTH could be enabled at a cost suited to India.
LAUNCH OF ANIK F2
Telesat launched its Anik F2 satellite back in 2004, making it one of the first to offer commercial consumer Ka-band broadband services. With its 45 Ka-band spot beams, it was the world’s most complex communications satellite at the time.
INTELSAT BUYS PANAMSAT
On Aug. 25, 2005, Intelsat announced a $3.2 billion merger that would create the biggest Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) operator in the world, with 53 geostationary satellites under one name.
IPSTAR AND SPACEWAY 1 LAUNCH
The launch of Thaicom’s Ipstar and Hughes’ Spaceway satellites in 2005 showed the troubled first steps of high throughput systems. By 2011, Ipstar had achieved a fill rate of only 20 percent, though it eventually reached a healthier utilization level.
NASA ISSUES COMMERCIAL ORBITAL TRANSPORTATION SERVICES (COTS)
NASA’s COTS announcement for proposals, released on Jan. 18, 2006, garnered 21 submissions. NASA ultimately chose SpaceX’s Falcon rocket and Dragon spacecraft, and Rocketplane Kistler’s planned reusable K-1 launch system.
SATELLITE INDUSTRY HOLDS GROUND ON C BAND AT WRC-07
At the ITU’s 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference, the satellite industry faced the possibility of losing access to C-band spectrum. The satellite industry coordinated an effective resistance and, with the exception of some country-specific footnotes, saved the band.
YAHSAT LAUNCHES IN MIDDLE EAST WITH TWO HUGE SATELLITES
Yahsat burst onto the scene in 2007 with the announcement of two massive satellites. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company, the then-nascent satellite operator placed a $1.7 billion dual order.
GREG WYLER FOUNDS O3B NETWORKS
In the mid-2000s, Greg Wyler was in Africa trying to determine how to bring people better internet access. The challenge of overcoming infrastructure limitations led to the idea of O3b Networks. In November 2010 O3b completed its final funding round, raising $1.2 billion with support from Google, Liberty Global and SES.
IRIDIUM 33 AND KOSMOS 2251 COLLIDE IN SPACE, SDA FORMS
The first ever collision between two artificial satellites happened Feb. 10, 2009, when Kosmos 2251 crashed into Iridium 33 approximately 800 kilometers above Siberia, creating nearly 2,000 pieces of debris. The Space Data Association (SDA) was legally established in the Isle of Man on June 19, 2009.
AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE FORCE BUYS HOSTED PAYLOAD ON INTELSAT 22
The Australian Defense Force (ADF) signed its flagship hosted payload deal with Intelsat in April 2009, agreeing to place a government payload on a commercial satellite in a $167 million contract.
VIASAT 1 LAUNCHES
ViaSat’s high capacity ViaSat 1 satellite successfully launched Oct. 19, 2011. In 2013 the satellite entered the Guinness World Records for being the highest capacity communications satellite in history, with 140 Gbps of capacity.
ABS AND SATMEX SIGN ALL-ELECTRIC, FOUR-SATELLITE DEAL WITH BOEING
Boeing’s four-satellite deal with ABS and Satmex in March 2012 is arguably the flashpoint that made the rest of the industry take all-electric propulsion seriously.
INMARSAT PLAYS KEY ROLE IN THE ATTEMPT TO LOCATE MH370
When Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared unexpectedly during a March 8, 2014 flight, Inmarsat was the only organization capable of narrowing the search from millions of square kilometers to 60,000 square kilometers.
GOOGLE BUYS SKYBOX IMAGING
Google’s $500 million acquisition of Skybox Imaging proved that the space industry could do Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurism with the best of them. Google made the acquisition on June 10, 2014.
FIFA MEN’S WORLD CUP BROADCAST IN 4K
The 2014 Men’s World Cup marked a notable milestone in 4K Ultra-HD awareness. U.K.-based SIS Live supported Latin American broadcaster TV Globo in covering the World Cup in 4K Ultra-HD.
FACEBOOK ENTERS SATELLITE SECTOR WITH EUTELSAT/SPACECOM DEAL
On Oct. 10, 2015, Facebook struck a deal through Eutelsat to use the high throughput Ka-band payload on Spacecom’s Amos 6 satellite to beam internet connectivity in Africa. Unfortunately, Amos 6 was destroyed in the Falcon 9 explosion on Sept. 1, 2016.
BLUE ORIGIN AND SPACEX EACH LAND ROCKETS
Blue Origin stunned the world by launching New Shepard on Nov. 23, 2015 to 100.5 kilometers and landing safely in West Texas. SpaceX then guided a Falcon 9 first stage booster back to Cape Canaveral on Dec. 22, 2015 after delivering 11 Orbcomm satellites to space. VS
