Orbital ATK's Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) is in production, having finished design review earlier this year, with about 75 percent of its platform and payload components having been delivered to the company's satellite manufacturing facility in Virginia, the company said Monday. It said it will start system-level testing in spring, with a launch planned for late next year. It said Monday its long-range plan is to establish a fleet of in-orbit servicing vehicles that can do repair, assembly, refueling and in-space transportation work. The company's FCC International Bureau request for authority to launch and operate MEV-1 (see 1702270005) is pending.
The bill of costs being sought by the federal government as part of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint against Dish Network is statutorily authorized and reasonable, and the court should overrule Dish's objections (see 1708160007), the FTC and DOJ said in a docket 3:09-cv-03073 response (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois. The federal government said it spent the past month scrutinizing the invoices from the TCPA litigation's eight-year history and is amending its bill of costs to $385,503, down $10,850 from the original ask. Dish didn't comment Monday.
Satcom growth opportunities are particularly focused on high-throughput satellites (HTS), but even in a decade there will still be a sizable fixed satellite service market with nearly $10 billion in 2026 revenue, Northern Sky Research analyst Blaine Curcio blogged Thursday. The analyst said that by 2026, FSS will provide about 40 percent of satcom revenue, down from 90 percent today, reflecting more the growth of HTS than an FSS decline. Satcom opportunities remain in trunking services for local and mobile networks and in video distribution, though there also are challenges, such as either finding ways to make trunking capacity "stickier" for the customer or otherwise accepting commoditization and trying to compete on price, the NSR expert said.
Iridium and smallsat company Magnitude Space (MS) signed a memorandum of understanding to look at collaboration on space-based IoT services through development of low-power global area network (LPGAN) technologies, Iridium said Thursday. Netherlands-based MS is planning a constellation of 18 to 24 smallsats to deliver LPGAN connectivity for agricultural applications, with services to commercially start in Q2, Iridium said. It said the MS MoU points to Iridium interest "in exploring collaborative partnerships with complementary NewSpace players, particularly those in the SmallSat low-power arena." Iridium said that beyond MS, it's working on a variety of other IoT-centric partnerships focused on low-power applications.
El Al Israel Airlines will use ViaSat's in-flight internet system for its in-flight connectivity services aboard its 16 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, ViaSat said Wednesday. It said the El Al jets will connect to ViaSat-2 and the Ka-Sat satellite jointly owned with Eutelsat.
EchoStar's EchoStar III satellite, which suffered communications problems after an anomaly in July (see 1708030037), was recovered and retired, the company and manufacturer Lockheed Martin said Wednesday. EchoStar said a command and control link was re-established and deorbit maneuvers performed, putting the satellite in a graveyard orbit more than 350 kilometers above the geostationary arc. It also said EchoStar III's fuel and pressurants have been depleted, its batteries drained and its systems shut down. The satellite was launched in 1997.
Instead of having nine satellites active with three spares, O3b wants FCC approval for a "10+2" orbital configuration. In an International Bureau filing Tuesday seeking modification of its authority to serve the U.S. market, the company said the change would allow it to "respond to urgent customer demand" for more capacity in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America, and the activated spare satellite would use the same bands laid out in the market access grant. It said implementation of the change would have to start in early October, and O3b requested expedited action. It said its nine currently active satellites are separated by 40 degree spacing, and that would change to 36 degrees when there are 10 active satellites.
Intelsat and Indian teleport operator Lamhas signed a multiyear deal for increased and extended media distribution satellite services via Intelsat 20, Intelsat said Sunday. It said Lahmas is using Intelsat 20 for delivery of broadcast services to new and emerging channels.
The first voice call employing nano-satellite technology was made, Sky and Space Global (SAS) said Tuesday. The U.K. company said the three smallsats, launched in June, also demoed the ability to facilitate text messaging and exchanges of voice recordings and images. SAS said with validation of its narrowband communications services, it will focus on building its planned 200-satellite constellation, to be fully deployed by 2020.
Six of Planet's earth observation SkySat Earth constellation satellites arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for scheduled October launch on a Minotaur rocket, the satellites' manufacturer, SSL, said Tuesday. It said the constellation -- which Planet gained through its acquisition earlier this year of Terra Bella (see 1704190010) -- will double Planet's high-resolution imaging capabilities.