Space is a Network.
Constellations is Your Connection.
Europe’s largest telecom operators see significant potential in satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services but remain uncertain about market demand, profitability and which D2D providers will ultimately survive.
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A Thales Alenia Space-led consortium has won a $255 million contract with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to design and build an in-orbit satellite-servicing mission to launch in 2026 with a demonstration mission to refuel an orbiting vehicle.
A consortium led by ArianeGroup with satellite fleet operator Eutelsat and image-processing expert Magellium will start work on space situational awareness camera placed on a Eutelsat satellite in geostationary orbit, likely as a hosted payload, or in geostationary transfer orbit as a dedicated small satellite.
Mobile satellite services provider Inmarsat has begun trials of a direct-to-device service using Inmarsat’s L-band from geostationary orbit with mobile network operators and user device builders with the near-term ambition of providing commercial two-way texting, device tracking and emergency communications.
The Australian government announced April 3 that Lockheed had been selected a the preferred tenderer for the Joint Project 9102 Phase 1 program, which includes at least two satellites in geostationary orbit, a network of ground stations and two network operations centers.
It has been six months since Deere & Co. issued its RFP to industry to equip a portion of Deere’s 1.5 million vehicles with satcom connectivity for its farm, forestry and construction customers in the United States and Brazil. Of this number, 500,000 Deere customers already are connected, almost all of them with cellular.
Russia’s largest satellite fleet operator said the company’s plans to use bandwidth from non-Russian satellite constellations will need to be scrapped as western sanctions force Russia “to rely on domestic satellites only,” and that Russian satellite builders similarly lose access to non-Russian satellite payloads.
It’s often said government cannot keep up with private-sector technology advances. But when it comes to restricting exports, it’s a different story. The outpouring of NewSpace companies in recent years has created these new markets, and most of them are internationally competitive.
The U.S. Department of Defense, whose Space Development Agency has already forced a de facto common technical standard on optical satellite transmissions, may be able to accomplish the same feat with interoperability among satellite broadband systems in geostationary and non-geostationary orbit, the head of Amazon Web Services’ global satcom division said.
Startup satellite-to-smartphone service provider Lynk Global acknowledged legitimate regulatory concerns about frequency interference with terrestrial mobile services in regions with many nations closely packed, and that Lynk’s initial operations will start this year in much easier geographies.
