Tag: satellite broadband
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Amazon reserves up to 83 rocket launches for Project Kuiper broadband satellite constellation
Amazon plans to have satellites sent into orbit by (from left) United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rockets, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 rockets. (Amazon Illustration) Amazon has secured as many as 83 launches on three types of heavy-lift rockets to put more than 1,500 satellites into low Earth orbit for its…
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Amid challenges, Kymeta and OneWeb sign deal to widen satellite broadband access
Engineers test Kymeta’s antenna system with OneWeb’s satellite service in France. (OneWeb via YouTube) Redmond, Wash.-based Kymeta Corp., the mobile connectivity company backed by Bill Gates, has signed a distribution partner agreement with OneWeb to offer satellite broadband services around the globe. The agreement clears the way for Kymeta to resell OneWeb services in conjunction…
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Radio astronomers are looking to the future as satellite mega-constellations light up the sky
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sends 47 Starlink satellites into orbit from Kennedy Space Center. (SpaceX Photo) There are plenty of astronomers who worry that the thousands of satellites that are being launched into low Earth orbit for global broadband internet access will cast a pall over their scientific observations. But Tony Beasley, director of…
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SpaceX’s falling Starlink satellites highlight concerns about the future of orbital traffic
A rocket’s-eye view shows a stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites just before orbital deployment. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX says that most of the satellites it launched last week for its Starlink broadband internet constellation are doomed to fall from orbit due to a solar storm. Based on the company’s analysis, as many as 40 of the…
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Astronomers set up a new center to address issues raised by SpaceX and Amazon satellite networks
This time-lapse image of Venus and the Pleiades shows the tracks of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (Torsten Hansen / IAU OAE / Creative Commons Attribution) The International Astronomical Union is heading up the creation of a new center to deal with the complications created by broadband satellite constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. The…
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Mangata raises $33M for hybrid satellite network with connections to Seattle tech community
Mangata Networks aims to put satellites in medium Earth orbit, or MEO; and highly elliptical orbits, or HEO. (Mangata Graphic) BELLEVUE, Wash. — Mangata Networks, a Phoenix-based startup with links to the Seattle area, has closed a $33 million investment round for an innovative kind of satellite constellation for connectivity and edge computing. The company…
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In a new video, Amazon’s Project Kuiper highlights satellite broadband for folks off the beaten track
Rajeev Badyal, VP of technology for Project Kuiper, speaks at the project’s Redmond facility. (Amazon via YouTube) Amazon’s Project Kuiper hasn’t yet launched a single satellite, but in a video released this week, it’s talking up what its broadband internet constellation will be able to do for rural connectivity. The video focuses on unmet broadband…
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Kymeta and OneWeb move ahead with flat panel terminal for satellite internet service
Engineers test Kymeta’s u8 antenna system with OneWeb’s satellite service in France. (OneWeb via YouTube) Kymeta Corp., the antenna venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has signed onto a joint development agreement with OneWeb to develop a flat-panel user terminal for OneWeb’s global satellite internet network. The plan calls for modifying Kymeta’s u8 antenna…
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Astra Space joins broadband internet race with proposal to launch 13,000 satellites
Members of Astra Space’s team prepare a rocket for a launch attempt in Alaska. (Astra Space Photo) Make room for yet another competitor in the market to provide broadband internet access from low Earth orbit: Astra Space, the venture that went public with a helping hand from Seattle-area telecom pioneer Craig McCaw, is asking the…
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Boeing finally wins the FCC’s go-ahead for broadband satellite constellation
Artwork shows the geosynchronous-orbit variant of Boeing’s 702X satellite platform. (Boeing Illustration) The Federal Communications Commission has authorized Boeing to put 147 satellites in orbit for a broadband internet constellation, adding to a list of competitors including Amazon, OneWeb and SpaceX. Boeing’s constellation was proposed in 2017, but it took four years for the FCC…