NEOM Tech & Digital Holding Company – the first holding company to be established as a subsidiary of NEOM – and OneWeb, the second-largest LEO operator with 358 satellites and the only licensed operator in Saudi Arabia, have signed a $200 million (SAR 750m) joint venture agreement to bring high-speed satellite connectivity to NEOM, Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East and neighboring East African countries.
The Arab Satellite Communications Corporation (Arabsat) announced, during its board of directors meeting, the selection of H.E Eng. Haitham Al-Ohali, vice minister at Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the new chairman of Arabsat board of directors, accepting the resignation of CEO Eng. Khalid bin Ahmed Balkheyour and assigning Dr. Badr bin Nasser Al-Suwaidan, chief technical officer, to head the organization.
After spending more than 18 years at the company in various leadership roles, Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler will retire after the satellite operator surfaces from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lockheed Martin has invented a new type of satellite dish technology with a wide range of use on satellites and ground terminals, including space-based 5G. The Wide Angle ESA Fed Reflector (WAEFR) antenna is a hybrid of a phased array Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) and a parabolic dish, and increases coverage area by 190% compared to traditional phased array antennas at a much lower cost.
Landsat-9, considered the world’s most important satellite was launched to orbit on an Atlas rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. According to experts, once the Atlas rocket drops it off at just under 680km in altitude, the Landsat-9 will use its thrusters to climb to a height of over 700km. The images relayed by the spacecraft will be compared with its predecessor, Landsat-8, launched in 2013 as well as images in the old Landsat archive for scientists to extract important information about the state of Earth's surface.
Currently, about 40 percent of the world’s population has poor or no access to high-speed Internet. Internet coverage from LEO satellites offers the potential to bring areas away from the major terrestrial data highways online. However, operators also need the right interconnection on the ground and that is why Internet Exchange (IX) operator with the largest neutral interconnection ecosystem, DE-CIX, shows how new interconnection solutions are building bridges for the Internet of tomorrow, connecting Earth and space.
SES and Hughes Network Systems have successfully demonstrated a new multi-orbit satellite communications (SATCOM) capability for remotely piloted aircraft. Conducted for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), the demonstration paired Hughes HM series software-defined modems and Resource Management System (RMS) with SES’s satellites that operate in geosynchronous (GEO) and medium earth (MEO) orbits. SES’s unique multi-orbit fleet, which delivers global coverage, high throughput and security, was leveraged to show how unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the GA-ASI MQ-9 series, can maintain crucial connectivity and resiliency, even in contested environments.
The Digital Interface Standards Working Group (DIS), in support of Communications & Power Industries (CPI), DataPath, Datum Systems, Gilat Satellite Networks, SES, ST Engineering iDirect, and Wavestream, invites the satellite communications (SATCOM) community to collaborate on the development of an open interoperability standard for the SATCOM industry.
SES-17 has completed its performance tests at the Thales Alenia Space facility in Cannes, France and is being prepared for shipment to Arianespace’s Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on 22 September 2021. The spacecraft is scheduled to be launched by Arianespace, using an Ariane 5 vehicle on 22 October 2021, SES has announced.
SES announces its half-year financial results that reveal solid H1 2021 performance upon delivering revenue of €875 million and adjusted EBITDA of €544 million. In line with this, the company’s 2021 revenue and improved EBITDA outlook are on track.
