Air France adopts Starlink for faster in-flight Wi-Fi

Plus: Starlink hits 4 million subscribers and FCC opens new spectrum for satellite broadband

A SpaceNews daily newsletter | Friday, September 27, 2024 Top Stories Italian space logistics company D-Orbit announced Friday it raised an additional 50 million euros ($56 million) in the second part of a Series C round. The company said it added the funding to 100 million euros it raised in January in the first part of the Series C round. Japan's Marubeni Corp. led the Series C round and has the exclusive rights to offer D-Orbit services in Japan and Southeast Asia as a result. The funds will enable D-Orbit, which has flown more than a dozen orbital transfer vehicle missions, to develop space-based cloud computing and in-orbit servicing systems. [SpaceNews] The Space Force's Space Rapid Capabilities Office (Space RCO) has started the first phase of a project aimed at developing a cloud-based satellite operations infrastructure.  Space RCO said this week it would award $600,000 to each of 20 companies it selected earlier this year for the Rapid Resilient Command and Control (R2C2) program to allow the companies to learn more about the program's requirements and for the service to examine how the companies can handle classified data. R2C2 seeks to modernize ground systems for more agile and responsive satellite management. The overall effort is worth $1 billion over five years. [SpaceNews] The FCC is opening up additional spectrum for nongeostationary orbit (NGSO) broadband satellite constellations. The regulator unanimously voted Thursday to give NGSO operators access to frequencies in the 17.3-17.7 gigahertz band for satellite communications provided to fixed points on Earth, such as a stationary residential antenna. Those companies must share the spectrum with geostationary operators while abiding by power limits and other conditions. [SpaceNews] The Space Force says it is making progress on a program of more traditional, large missile-warning satellites. The Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) program, with an estimated cost of $14 billion, is among the most expensive satellite procurement efforts in the Space Force today, placing missile-detection payloads in geostationary and polar orbits. Frank Calvelli, the Space Force's top procurement official, said contractors are meeting milestones and development timelines for Next-Gen OPIR at a faster pace than previous systems. The system is intended to complement constellations of smaller satellites in LEO and MEO. [SpaceNews] Starfish Space won a NASA contract for a debris inspection mission. NASA announced this week it awarded a $15 million contract to the company for its Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission launching in late 2026. SSPICY will approach several defunct objects in low Earth orbit and inspect them. Industry has pushed NASA to fund flight demonstrations of satellite servicing technologies like this, citing similar efforts in Europe and Japan. NASA has focused on the OSAM-1 mission, but the agency plans to cancel it unless Congress steps in, citing cost and schedule overruns. NASA issued an RFI earlier this month seeking ideas  for "alternate use cases" of the OSAM-1 spacecraft. [SpaceNews]   Other News DirectTV and Dish Network are in advanced talks on a merger of the two direct-to-home satellite TV companies. A deal could be reached as soon as next week where DirecTV would acquire Dish, creating a company with 20 million subscribers. Both companies have suffered losses of subscribers as consumers moved from traditional TV services to streaming platforms. The companies had considered a merger several times over the years, but a deal now would be less likely to face antitrust scrutiny given changes in the broader marketplace. [Bloomberg] Air France is the latest airline to select Starlink for in-flight connectivity. Air France said Thursday it will start adding Starlink to its fleet next year, but did not state how long it would take to convert the entire fleet to Starlink. The airline will provide the service to passengers at no charge. The announcement comes two weeks after United Airlines announced it would convert its fleet to Starlink. [SpaceNews] Starlink now has four million subscribers worldwide. SpaceX announced Thursday that it hit the milestone after the company's president, Gwynne Shotwell, told Texas legislators earlier this week that the subscriber milestone was imminent. The company passed three million subscribers in May. An analysis by Quilty Space earlier this year estimates that Starlink will generate $6.6 billion in revenue for SpaceX this year. [TechCrunch] MaiaSpace has won access to the former Soyuz launch pad in French Guiana. The small launch vehicle startup, backed by ArianeGroup, said Thursday that the French space agency CNES awarded it access to the pad, which has been idle since Russia halted Soyuz launches there in 2022. MaiaSpace said it will spend several tens of millions of euros to convert the pad for its small launcher, slated to begin commercial service in 2026. The rocket will be able to place up to 1,500 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbit when expended and 500 kilograms when its first stage is recovered and reused. [SpaceNews] Washington-based thermal data and analytics startup Hydrosat is expanding its Latin American business. Hydrosat said it is working with Mexican companies to provide farmers in Mexico and Guatemala with access to Hydrosat tools to improve water use efficiency, increase crop yields and promote sustainable agriculture. Hydrosat uses data from NASA and ESA spacecraft, as well as a thermal infrared instrument launched in July on Loft Orbital's YAM-7 mission, to provide insights for agricultural markets. [SpaceNews]   James Weird Space Telescope "My first thought in looking at the galaxy's spectrum was, 'that's weird,' which is exactly what the Webb telescope was designed to reveal." – Alex Cameron, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, discussing observations of a distant galaxy by JWST that may provide a "missing link" in the evolution of galaxies. [Space.com]   A premier press release service designed to elevate your company's visibility and target our audience. Publish your company's press release with Stellar Dispatch today. 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