Many years ago, when I was part of a team considering an investment in Teledesic, one of the engineers at Hughes, produced a computer model, of what would happen if one of the satellites ran into a piece of orbital debris.  The assumption was, that this would cause it to break-up, so the satellite behind would inevitably run into the fragments and similarly break-up and so on.  The space equivalent of a freeway pile-up, technically known as the Kessler Effect, after the NASA scientist who first modeled this happening.  

Microsatellites and nanosatellites are miniaturized man-made satellites that are used for collecting information about the earth and space, among other uses. According to NASA, these satellites are classified on the basis of their overall mass. Microsatellites are artificial satellites, with a mass of 11–100 kg (including fuel mass) while nanosatellites are artificial satellites weighing between 1 and 10 kg, and measuring around 30 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm. Nanosatellites with standard dimensions (“U” or Units) of 10 × 10 × 11 are known as CubeSats.

Depending on where you are in the world today, the light at the end of the tunnel is either welcome daylight or an oncoming train.  Since it first appeared in late 2019, COVID-19 has been an unequal opportunity curse, killing many, sickening more and leaving even more of us untouched but isolated and afraid.  Now that vaccines are pouring out of production facilities and into people’s arms, the inequality has actually grown, varying from nation to nation based on economic might, the capabilities of governments and national and regional culture.  

As I write this column on a sunny Saturday afternoon in late-May in the south of the UK I reflect that, just as I approach the 20th anniversay of my joining GVF, it’s still going to be some time until my GVF duties will require me to take a flight departing from London Gatwick, my nearest international airport, or London Heathrow, some one-hour away by motorway.  As the impact of the pandemic in many parts of the world not only continues but becomes yet more serious, some parts of the UK are affected by the Covid-19 strain offically designated B.1.617.2, and commonly known as the “Indian va

NSR’s Land Mobile via Satellite, 9^th Edition (LMvS9) report, released today, forecasts despite some challenges with enterprise segments over the past 16 months, consumer handheld demand soared throughout 2020, after challenges at the start of the year. LMvS9 finds this solid base propelling the market to add over 500,000 new land mobile subscribers over the coming decade, reaching 1.2 million active subscribers in 2030.

The May2021 issue of  the Satellite Executive Briefing magazine focusing on the Middle East and Africa Satellite  Market is now available.  Featuring:

UltiSat, a global provider of critical communications solutions, announced today that Tim Smith has joined the company as its new Vice President and General Manager of Wireless Solutions.

Integrasys' office at the Nassima Tower, Dubai Trade Center district

Integrasys maintains its aggressive expansion plans by opening a new high-tech office at the

Inmarsat has expanded its division dedicated to connectivity for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, with the addition of two new senior executives. The company aannounced the appointment of Jon Holmes as Senior Director of UAV Technology and Mark ter Hove as Senior Manager of European Market Development.