The 22-nation European Space Agency on Dec. 2 forced its science program to lay an offering at the alter of the agency’s struggling ExoMars mission with Russia, allowing a European rover to be launched in 2020 to complement the Mars orbiter already in service.

The post Europe commits to the space station and ExoMars as part of $11 billion in commitments to ESA appeared first on SpaceNews.

Australia’s national satellite broadband service continues to suffer regional outages seven months after its introduction, with a majority of users reporting installation or connection problems, according to a survey conducted by a national broadband association.

The post Australia’s NBN satellite consumer broadband service suffering outages and customer response issues appeared first on SpaceNews.

A Chinese commercial launch-service provider created earlier this year to bid for small-satellite business worldwide expects to launch an average 10 of its Kuaizhou solid-fueled rockets per year between 2017 and 2020, the company said Nov. 29.

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Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat has paid its Russian counterpart, Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RCSS), monies overdue on a multi-year contract valued more than 400 million euros ($424 million) despite an ongoing legal battle between the Russian government and the shareholders of the former Yukos oil company.

The post Eutelsat, freed by Paris court ruling, makes overdue payment on $424 million RSCC contract appeared first on SpaceNews.

The recent German-Italian agreement to divide production of casings for the future Ariane 6 rocket’s strap-on boosters, which also serve as the first stage of the Italian-led Vega-C small-satellite launcher, was a victory for political harmony in Europe.

The post Q&A | Avio CEO Ranzo on sharing the pie with Germany, and keeping SpaceX from an Italian contract appeared first on SpaceNews.

The British government has emphatically endorsed its investment in the 22-nation European Space Agency and rejected a parliamentary proposal that its space budget be more evenly divided between ESA and a national program.

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Satellite fleet operator EchoStar Corp. on Nov. 23 said its EchoStar 23 tri-band telecommunications satellite for Brazil is expected to launch Jan. 8 or Jan. 9 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

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The European Space Agency on Nov. 23 said its Schiaparelli lander’s crash landing on Mars on Oct. 19 followed an unexplained saturation of its inertial measurement unit, which delivered bad data to the lander’s computer and forced a premature release of its parachute.

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ViaSat Inc and SES-owned O3b Ltd., two satellite fleet operators providing commercial Ka-band broadband from different orbital vantage points, look to become direct competitors based on new satellite constellations both are proposing to U.S. regulators.

The post ViaSat and O3b, now distant neighbors, eye confrontation in medium-Earth orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.

A European Ariane 5 rocket, operating in a rarely used configuration and debuting a new satellite-dispenser system, on Nov. 17 successfully placed four European Galileo positioning, navigation and timing satellites into medium-Earth orbit.

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Canadian satellite fleet operator Telesat expects to raise more than $3 billion in several transactions in the coming weeks to payoff existing debt and to make a $400 million cash distribution to shareholders still at loggerheads over a Telesat IPO.

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Satellite and rocket hardware builder OHB of Germany on Nov. 16 said delays in its supply chain had put pressure on its revenue in recent months but that the company’s full-year profitability would be unaffected.

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The agency providing U.S. government access to Iridium’s global constellation of mobile communications satellites on Nov. 9 urged other nations to join the program to take advantage of its fixed-price, unlimited-access feature.

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The NATO alliance is so far behind schedule in contracting for next-generation satellite communications capacity that it now must consider extending its current contract beyond the scheduled end in 2019, a senior NATO official said Nov. 10.

The post NATO behind schedule on satellite capacity order, now hopes for 2017 decision appeared first on SpaceNews.

The Canadian official who negotiated Canada’s entry into the U.S. Wideband Global System (WGS) on Nov. 10 said the U.S. Defense Department has become much more open to international partnerships than it used to be.

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U.S. Air Force satellite communications experts on Nov. 9 deployed to London to persuade an international audience that the U.S. Defense Department, despite a painful slowness, is making progress on bringing international partners into the design and operation of military telecommunications satellites.

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Satellite broadband hardware and services provider ViaSat Inc. on Nov. 8 said it had contracted with a U.S.-based commercial airline to retrofit more than 500 aircraft with ViaSat’s Ka-band airline connectivity system.

The post ViaSat reports big airline connectivity order and robust government growth appeared first on SpaceNews.

Satellite fleet operators Inmarsat, Intelsat, SES and Eutelsat all say the long-awaited rebound in U.S. government (translation: mainly the U.S. Department of Defense) demand for bandwidth now looks to be underway.

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The annual Global Milsatcom conference opens Nov. 8 in London amid a host of questions about what the allied nations of North America, Europe and Asia wish to do together and apart in the coming years.

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The European Space Agency will ask its 22 member governments in December for a multi-year financial commitment of around 11 billion euros ($12.2 billion) including a billion-euro telecommunications research effort to be conducted in partnership with the private sector and around 1.4 billion euros in new Earth observation missions, ESA Director-General Jan Woerner said Nov. 7.

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The European Space Agency’s ruling council on Nov. 3 gave what should be the final endorsement needed to free up development funds for the next-generation Ariane 6 launch after a compromise on work shares between Italy and Germany.

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Mobile satellite services provider Inmarsat on Nov. 3 said launch-service provider SpaceX has identified the root cause of the Sept. 1 explosion of its Falcon 9 rocket during a launch-pad test and that SpaceX will return to flight in December.

The post Inmarsat, juggling two launches, says SpaceX to return to flight in December appeared first on SpaceNews.

Canadian satellite builder and geospatial-services provider MDA Corp. on Nov. 1 pulled back from earlier optimistic assessments of the global commercial telecommunications satellite business, saying strong customer interest in new satellites was not translating into contracts.

The post Canada’s MDA says commercial satellite market shows unexpected softness appeared first on SpaceNews.

Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat on Oct. 27 reassured a nervous stock market by reconfirming the company’s revenue and profit forecast and showing concrete results from its design-to-cost strategy.

The post Eutelsat recommits to Africa broadband without Facebook, and to 2-year revenue turnaround appeared first on SpaceNews.