Satellite News

Euroconsult has released its “Satellites to be Built & Launched” report for 2021. The 17,000 satellites expected to be launched in the next ten years represents a fourfold increase over past decade, reflecting structural changes in the whole space ecosystem and a limited short-term impact of the pandemic.

Spire Global, Inc. has been awarded a contract under ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) Element 2 Program funded by UK Space Agency.

Inmarsat is working on a UK Space Agency-funded test project with the European Space Agency, alongside British partners Goonhilly Earth Station Limited and GMVNSL Limited, to deliver the first UK-generated satellite navigation (satnav) signal. The project provides a potential platform for the UK to enhance its capabilities in the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) domain post-Brexit.

Astranis announced it has signed an agreement to provide broadband capacity with Astranis MicroGEO communications satellites to Grupo Andesat, a cellular services backhaul provider that connects cell towers in Peru to the Internet backbone, in a new partnership that will bring broadband Internet access to thousands of rural communities across Peru for the first time.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Airbus to build the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) mission. ARIEL is the fourth medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme.

Rocket Ceres-1 Y2; Payload: five smallsats; Date: 7 December 2021, 0412 UTC; Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. The satellites were deployed into approx. 480 km x 500 km x 97.40 degrees orbits.

Rocket: Atlas V 551/Centaur; Payload: STP-3 (STPSat 6, several smallsats); Date: 7 December 2021, 1022 UTC; Launch site: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, USA. TP-3 marked ULA’s longest duration mission at seven hours and 10 minutes until spacecraft separation.

ESA announced it is backing a research project to build a software-based platform that will allow satellites to communicate with terrestrial mobile networks. It aims to extend 5G coverage for mobile phone network operators and companies that are building 5G towers into regions that are otherwise hard to connect.

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