SES's SES-17 satellite will be launched in 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket, SES said Tuesday. It said SES-17 will provide in-flight connectivity and data services over the Americas and Atlantic region.
Hispasat's Amazonas 5 satellite was launched into orbit Tuesday on an ILS Proton rocket, ILS said. The SSL-built satellite has a high-throughput Ka-band payload and will be used for broadband delivery in Central and South America and Mexico, and a Ku-band payload to be used for TV and other telco applications in Central and South America, it said.
U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Karen Bradley wants to refer Fox's planned buy of Sky to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a full, six-month investigation, she said in a statement Tuesday to Parliament. She cited media plurality and commitment to broadcasting standards issues as the reason. She said since Ofcom concluded "there are non-fanciful [broadcasting standards] concerns" with the deal (see 1708250035), those concerns meet the threshold for a reference on broadcasting standards grounds. She said CMA might want to look at the lack of procedures for broadcast compliance in the U.K. for Fox News, since Fox established such procedures only after Ofcom raised the issue, and look at corporate governance issues and whether Fox will have "a genuine commitment" to broadcasting standards. She said the parties had 10 days to respond to her proposed decision to refer to CMA, after which she will come to a final decision. Fox in a statement said it was disappointed, and cited Ofcom concluding that it and Sky have compliance records consistent with comparable license holders and that Ofcom in August said there weren't sufficient concerns to warrant referring the deal based on broadcast standards consideration. Fox said it's "surprised that after independent regulatory scrutiny and advice, and over four months to examine the case, the Secretary of State is still unable to form an opinion," and it still expects to close on Sky by June 30. Bradley's announcement "is more a political issue" than an actual question of Fox commitment to broadcast standards, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors: "Ms. Bradley is trying to disentangle herself from shouldering the responsibility of this deal."
Commercial modeling and analysis software company Analytical Graphics joined the Satellite Industry Association, the trade group said Monday.
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.