Satellites

A collection of 111 posts

Satellites

Thaicom 10 Slips to Late 2028 Launch, Deepening Thaicom's Fleet Gap

Thaicom said its Airbus-built Thaicom 10 satellite has slipped again, now targeting a late 2028 launch, with service not expected until the first half of 2029. The delay compounds an already difficult stretch for the Thai fleet operator as it retires Thaicom 4 and contends with production delays on

Launch

H3 Returns to Flight With Successful Navigation Satellite Launch

Japan's H3 rocket successfully launched the Michibiki 7 navigation satellite on Aug. 10, more than seven months after a similar launch ended in failure. The H3-22S lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 3:23 p.m. Eastern and deployed the satellite into its planned transfer

Markets

Eutelsat's OneWeb LEO Revenue Jumps 69.5 Percent, Now a Quarter of Group Sales

Eutelsat Group reported a 69.5 percent surge in revenues from its OneWeb low Earth orbit constellation for the full fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, reaching €297 million ($325 million). The LEO network now accounts for roughly 25 percent of the operator's total annual revenues, a milestone

Satellites

AST SpaceMobile Expands BlueBird Constellation With Three New Satellites, Targeting Europe

AST SpaceMobile has added three new BlueBird satellites to its orbiting constellation, a move aimed at accelerating direct-to-device network coverage across Europe. The additions expand the coverage window for a service designed to connect standard smartphones directly to satellites without specialized hardware. The company is building a network

Satellites

Europe's IRIS² Constellation Grows by 66 Satellites as Cost Climbs to 15.6 Billion Euros

The European Commission has completed negotiations with the SpaceRISE industrial consortium on the IRIS² secure connectivity constellation, adding 66 satellites and significantly raising the program's cost. The agreement, signed August 7 and formally known as Rendezvous 1, allows work on the constellation to proceed. The European Commission selected

Launch

Rocket Lab Launches 92nd Electron, Deploys Eighth Satellite for Japan's iQPS

Rocket Lab launched its 92nd Electron mission on August 6, deploying the eighth satellite for Japanese radar-imaging company iQPS. The flight marked the company's 13th Electron launch of 2026, lifting off from the Mahia launch site in New Zealand. The mission came more than a month after

Satellites

SpaceX Confirms Terafab Satellite Factory in Grimes County, Texas, With Construction Months Away

SpaceX has confirmed that its next Terafab satellite manufacturing facility will be built in Grimes County, Texas, with construction set to begin within months. The confirmation followed a community meeting SpaceX held with residents living near the planned site, marking the first time the company directly engaged the community about

Markets

Telesat Lands Record C$2.3 Billion Contract for Arctic Military Satcom

Telesat has signed a C$2.3 billion contract, roughly US$1.64 billion, with Canada's Defense Investment Agency to provide military satellite communications in the Arctic using its Lightspeed constellation. The deal is described as a record for Canadian military satcom and delivers a major anchor customer

Markets

SpaceX Commits Exclusively to Nvidia for Orbital AI Hardware

SpaceX announced a partnership with Nvidia to design the compute payload for Starmind AI1, the first satellite in a planned constellation built to run AI workloads directly in orbit. Hours later, on the company's first earnings call as a public company, Elon Musk pledged that SpaceX will build

Launch

SpaceX Delivers Three More BlueBird Satellites to Orbit for AST SpaceMobile

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched three of AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird Block 2 satellites into low Earth orbit before dawn on Wednesday, adding satellites numbered 11, 12, and 13 to the company's direct-to-device constellation. The mission marks the latest step in building out a network

Launch

SpaceX Sets IFT-14 for Late August With First Operational Starlinks and Ship Catch Attempt

SpaceX will fly the next Starship test, IFT-14, as soon as the end of August, deploying operational Starlink Version 3 satellites into orbit for the first time and attempting to catch the Starship upper stage back at Starbase, Texas. Company officials confirmed the plan during SpaceX's first

Markets

AST SpaceMobile Activates Direct-to-Cell Service in Japan With Rakuten

AST SpaceMobile has formally notified the Federal Communications Commission that it has begun active direct-to-cellular service operations in Japan alongside partner Rakuten Mobile. The activation marks the company's first commercial service outside the United States, establishing a direct orbital link to standard mobile handsets across the

Policy

Greece Commits 350 Million Euros to Sovereign Satellite Programme

Greece unveiled Hellas-Space 2.0, a 350 million euro national space programme, on August 3, 2026, to expand national space infrastructure and domestic industrial capabilities. The Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence announced the initiative, which centers on deploying very high-resolution optical and thermal imaging satellites. The

Markets

NASA Ships Shoebox-Sized Navigation Payload to Intuitive Machines for First Lunar Relay Satellite

NASA delivered its NavCube3-mini navigation payload on July 13 to Intuitive Machines for integration into Altus-1, the company's first lunar relay satellite. The delivery marks a milestone in developing the communications and navigation services intended to support astronauts and rovers at NASA's future Moon

Launch

China Sends TJS-27 Pair Into New Orbit, Orbits First Third-Generation Tianlian Relay

China launched a pair of classified satellites, TJS-27A and TJS-27B, into an orbital regime not previously used by the series, while separately orbiting the first of a new generation of data relay satellites. The two missions, hours apart on July 29, marked China's 52nd and 53rd

Launch

SpaceX Reaches 90th Orbital Launch of 2026 With Latest Starlink Mission

SpaceX launched its 90th orbital mission of 2026 on Friday night, sending another 24 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The milestone came just seven months into the year, with liftoff set for 7:59 p.m. PDT from

Markets

K2 Space Raises $500 Million in Series D, Valuation Approaches $7 Billion

K2 Space has closed a $500 million Series D funding round that values the company at close to $7 billion. The financing brings the satellite manufacturer's cumulative capital raised to more than $1 billion and comes as it prepares to scale production of large, high-power spacecraft. The

Markets

K2 Space Raises $500 Million, Sets Sights on Building 100 Large Satellites a Year

K2 Space has raised $500 million in a Series D round that values the satellite manufacturer at $6.8 billion, more than doubling its valuation in seven months. The Torrance, California, company said July 30 that the funding will support a move from orbital demonstrations to large commercial and military

Markets

MDA Space Prices $600-Million Note Offering to Fund Blue Canyon Acquisition

MDA Space has priced a $600-million private placement of senior unsecured notes to finance its purchase of U.S. satellite manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies. The offering caps a month of intensive capital raises tied to two separate acquisitions and completes a dual-track financing strategy designed to fund both

Satellites

Amazon Files for 5,105-Satellite Direct-to-Phone Constellation, Targeting 2028 Launch

Amazon submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission on Saturday to launch a new low Earth orbit constellation of 5,105 satellites designed to provide direct-to-device service including voice, messaging, data, and emergency services. If approved, Amazon says it will begin deploying the constellation in 2028, marking

Satellites

NASA Runs Google's Gemma AI in Orbit, Letting a Satellite Analyze Its Own Images

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has successfully run Google's Gemma 3 artificial intelligence model aboard a satellite in low Earth orbit, demonstrating a new approach in which spacecraft can analyze what they see before sending data back to Earth. The experiment, called NAVI-Orbital, was conducted aboard

Satellites

NASA Sends Google's Gemma Language Model Into Orbit Aboard a Satellite

NASA has placed Google's Gemma large language model on an orbital satellite, marking an early step toward spacecraft capable of reasoning about their own data without waiting for a ground uplink. The deployment was reported on July 24, 2026, by Loft Orbital, a satellite hosting company. The move

Satellites

China's Shijian-31 Uses a Novel Molniya Orbit to Sweep the Geostationary Belt

A classified Chinese satellite launched in June is operating in an orbit analysts say they have never seen before, giving it a unique vantage point over the geostationary belt. Shijian-31 is using a modified Molniya type trajectory to loiter over the equator and monitor satellites in geostationary orbit, a

Satellites

Poland Backs Europe's IRIS2 With $749 Million, Will Build 12 Satellites

Poland has committed 656 million euros, roughly $749 million, to IRIS2, Europe's sovereign broadband satellite constellation. Under an agreement signed in Warsaw, Poland will fund nearly 10 percent of the constellation, build 12 of its satellites, and construct a ground station in Warsaw. IRIS2 is framed as Europe&

Launch

Northrop Grumman Launches Robotic Servicing Vehicle Toward Geosynchronous Orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday carrying Northrop Grumman's Mission Robotic Vehicle and three Mission Extension Pods, a mission built to prolong the working lives of multiple satellites already in geosynchronous orbit. The launch marks one of the first