April 2021
Satellite servicing comes of age
... a whiteboard in the mid-2000s had finally resulted in an operating, docked ‘stack’ of spacecraft in GEO. The world’s first satellite servicing vehicle had proven itself in commercial use, opening up a whole new kind of privately funded space market...
March 2022
Smoothing the journey to space with the satellite-as-a-service model
...-as-a-service and mission-as-a-service A solution to this challenge involves using a shared-access, single host/multi-tenant satellite. This approach can dramatically lower costs and speed up the development schedule of many areas of space technology...
February 2023
Remote sensing by satellite - People’s Republic of China
... introduction of support policies helped commercial players. Between 2019 and 2021, the annual commercial remote sensing satellites that were launched were 21, 13 and 36 respectively, while the number by the end of 2022 is expected to be more than...
May 2024
The challenges of satellite communications on the move
... antenna beams. Instead of a parabolic dish that is mechanically rotated in azimuth and elevation to maintain beam-pointing at the satellite, electronic antennas are being developed. Electronic beam steering can do this without moving parts and can...
May 2018
Satellite data helps combat illegal shark fishing
... The types of data incorporated into the system include: Open and proprietary vessel tracking telemetry Satellite-based RADAR observations Satellite-based optical and near-infrared imagery Unmanned aerial, surface or underwater vehicle sensors Global...
07 November 2019
SSTL ships target satellite to Tokyo for Astroscale’s ELSA-d mission
... to identify and estimate attitude before deploying a capture extension mechanism with a magnetic plate to latch on to the Target satellite. Whilst rendezvous has been performed in orbit in the past, ELSA-d will demonstrate the first semi-autonomous...
