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.

HISPASAT, the Spanish satellite telecommunications operator of the Red Eléctrica Group, has delivered two pilot tele-education and telemedicine projects via satellite to the Ecuadorian government to help bridge the digital divide in remote areas of the country.

As I began writing this column news was filtering over media about the decision of the World Health Organization to designate the latest mutations to the spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus as a “variant of concern”, and to use the Greek letter Omicron to name it (rather than the original designation of B.1.1.529). Thanks to the skills of scientists at South Africa’s Medical Research Council Genomics Centre the exact sequencing of the new variant was speedily completed and its details promulgated quickly to their colleagues in sister agencies around the world.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp.  announced today, that during its first quarter of fiscal 2022, it was awarded a follow-on order valued at US$ 1.2 million for its Ka-band Solid-State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) that use state-of-the-art Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology for an In-Flight Connectivity (“IFC”) application. Comtech’s Falcon 50Ka GaN amplifiers feature a tri-band Block Upconverter (BUC) and are packaged in ARINC 791 compliant housings.