Page 116 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022
P. 116
SATELLITE UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS
SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launches 2 Satellites on Record-Tying 14th Mission
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on its record-tying 14th mission, The rocket previously helped launch the GPS III-3 and Turksat 5A
sending two commercial communications satellites to orbit. The satellites, the Transporter-2 rideshare mission and 10 big batches
Falcon 9, topped with Intelsat's Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 satellites, of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites. Fourteen missions is the
lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on record for a Falcon 9 first stage, first set just last month during a
Saturday at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT). The Falcon 9's first stage launch that lofted the BlueWalker 3 communications satellite and
came back to Earth and landed on SpaceX's A Shortfall of Gravitas 34 Starlinks. Galaxy 33 was deployed about 33 minutes after liftoff
droneship about 8.5 minutes after launch. The robotic ship was and Galaxy 34 followed suit five minutes later, SpaceX confirmed
stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred miles off the Florida via Twitter (opens in new tab). The duo "are the next satellites in
coast. It was the 14th launch and landing for this particular booster, Intelsat's comprehensive Galaxy fleet refresh plan, a new generation
according to a SpaceX mission description (opens in new tab). of technology that will provide Intelsat Media customers in North
America with high-performance media distribution capabilities and
unmatched penetration of cable headends," Luxembourg-based
Intelsat wrote in a statement (opens in new tab). "It is critical to
Intelsat's U.S. C-band clearing strategy." Saturday's launch was the
third for SpaceX in a four-day stretch. On Wednesday, the company
launched the Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA as well as a batch
of 52 Starlink satellites. Saturday's flight was originally supposed
to launch on Thursday evening (Oct. 6), but the Falcon 9 initiated an
auto abort shortly(opens in new tab) before the planned liftoff. The
abort was caused by a small helium leak, SpaceX founder and CEO
Elon Musk said via Twitter Thursday (opens in new tab). SpaceX
then pushed the launch back to Saturday to perform additional
vehicle checks.
UK Prepares for Its First Satellite Launch
The UK’s commercial spaceflight program is set to take off with its process of using the unique microgravity environment of space to
first ever orbital satellite launch. The first launch will take place from manufacture special materials that are much more difficult to make
Spaceport Cornwall in the south-west of England as a ‘horizontal on Earth. There are several other spaceports currently planned or
launch’. A specially modified Boeing 747 from Virgin Orbit called under construction in England, Scotland and Wales.
Cosmic Girl, with a rocket attached under its wing, will take off from
a runway. In flight over the sea, the LauncherOne rocket will launch
from the wing, taking multiple small satellites into orbit. The plane
will then return to the Spaceport, able to launch more satellites in
future. Several small satellites will be launched into orbit on the
first UK mission for launch for navigation and communications
applications Several of the satellites have been built in the UK,
including a research satellite from RHEA Group, which was built
by Open Cosmos in Oxfordshire. The first Welsh satellite will also
be on the launch, from Cardiff-based Space Forge. It will test the
Soracom Adds Native Satellite Support to Global IoT Connectivity Platform
Soracom, Inc., a global provider of advanced IoT connectivity, remote monitoring, asset tracking and other use cases to “bring
announced it has expanded its IoT connectivity offerings to include their own” compatible satellite hardware and manage all of their
native support for satellite messaging capability, allowing SMBs, connections and billing in one place. In addition, users can integrate
SMEs and enterprise customers to manage SatIoT connections advanced platform services supporting device management,
and billing directly through the Soracom platform. This capability is cloud integration and secure private networking into IoT use cases
now available on a Technical Preview basis, with support available requiring satellite communication. Native satellite support is a new
today for Astrocast, with additional satellite services to follow. addition to Soracom’s “blended” IoT networking offering. Soracom
The launch of native support for satellite enables customers with has provided native support with integrated billing for cellular and
116 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022