Pandemic-related crises and challenges continued to reverberate across the world in 2021, and industries continued to adapt to varying external factors ranging from unprecedented supply chain interruptions to the multitude of changing governmental regulations affecting borders and commerce. In addition, the ongoing safety and health measures for both employees and customers were universal issues.

Igor Kot, Deputy Secretary-General of Russia-based satellite operator Gazprom Space Systems, shares his insights on how their company has weathered the global pandemic and their plans moving forward as they celebrate their company's 30th anniversary in 2022. 

How has the global COVID pandemic affected your business and how did you cope as a company to the challenges?

Taiwan, a small island in the Pacific Ocean with a population of 23.5 million, is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking of space powers.

We're finally near the end of 2021 and for most people, it couldn't come fast enough. It's been a very challenging   year not only for the satellite industry but for pretty much the global economy.

As I've pointed out in several previous articles in this publication (The Satellite Industry in a Post-Pandemic World," September 2021 and The Satellite Industry in the Time of Covid-19, April 2020), some sectors may not have been impacted by the pandemic as others, but impacted nonetheless.

Pandemics are Here to Stay

Euroconsult has released its “Satellites to be Built & Launched” report for 2021, the latest edition in a series that has consistently set the industry benchmark for analysis of the satellite market. 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.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL), a leading global provider of next-generation 911 emergency systems and secure wireless communications technologies, today announced that during its first quarter of fiscal 2022, it was awarded an order approximating US$ 2 million from Intellian, a leading global maritime satellite communication antenna systems provider. The order calls for Comtech to deliver C-Band and Ku-Band Low Power Outdoor Block Up Converters (LPOD BUCs).

Profiles of key products and services showcased at CABSAT 2021 in Dubai, UAE. To view the profiles click here. You will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view the profiles. 

ST Engineering today announced that its Corporate Venture Capital unit, ST Engineering Ventures Pte Ltd led a US$ 30 million Series A round in Israel-based hiSky Ltd., a  developer and provider of affordable and agile satellite Internet of Things (IoT) networks and solutions, with participation from SDF (Strategic Development Fund), the investment arm of Tawazun Holding, and hiSky’s existing shareholders.

In the Terminator films, an artificial intelligence system called Skynet is put in charge of the US nuclear deterrent.  After some consideration, it reaches the not-unreasonable conclusion that human beings are dangerous.  Cue Armageddon, followed by a long mopping-up operation to ensure that humans will never pose a threat to a world now run by machines.  

NSR’s newly released Space Traffic Study report finds that the amount of data to/from space will reach more than 500 exabytes of information from 2020 to 2030. Driven by the increasing needs for satellite-based connectivity and Earth Observation, data either generated in space or traveling through space will be roughly the equivalent of 3.9 Billion average capacity smartphones over the next ten years.