OneWeb

The French government has signed an eight-year contract with Eutelsat to assure for Eutelsat OneWeb services to bridge to the European IRIS2 secure satellite. communications systems and add capacity.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s DEUSCI program advances hybrid satellite communications with industry-provided terminals, enabling seamless network switching for U.S. military operations.

With the proliferation of low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations, the commercial air transport industry is accelerating its move to offer free onboard Wi-Fi.

Eutelsat announced late Jan. 29 that the previously proposed sale of its ground segment to investor EQT Infrastructure VI will not occur.

Eutelsat says it will buy another tranche of satellites from Airbus to build out its OneWeb low-Earth-orbit broadband communication system.

Eutelsat is in talks with French armaments agency DGA over hosted payloads as the two sides look to finalize contract terms around a 10-year services agreement.

Launch service operator Arianespace will loft another two Ariane 6s this year.

Canada’s EarthDaily Analytics has received $60 million in equipment financing to help support its plans to build and launch its 10-satellite Earth observation constellation.

The UK government plans to use Eutelsat’s OneWeb low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for its global government operations.

The EU is pouring billions into sovereign satellite constellations.

The British government is following France in taking a stake in OneWeb-owner Eutelsat, boosting the value of the French satellite service operator.

Eutelsat, whose OneWeb system competes with SpaceX’s Starlink, is raising $1.6 billion with backing from the French government.

Kymeta says it has demonstrated a new antenna that can simultaneously connect to multiple satellites using Ku and Ka bands.

Hughes, a manufacturer of satellite broadband antennas, is making new inroads in aviation.

Eutelsat on May 5 announced that telecommunications veteran Jean-François Fallacher will take over as CEO.

Inflight connectivity provider Gogo and mission system integrator MAG Aerospace have confirmed the performance of an electronically steered antenna.

Amazon plans to use the satellites to roll out high-speed internet service later this year.

Astranis will provide connectivity from its microGEO communications satellite to Taiwan starting in 2026.

Bulgaria is using two nanosatellites to support surveillance efforts over the Black Sea, says a senior NATO official.

Europeans have developed a wariness of relying on U.S. space tech, but the U.S. is light years ahead of its Old World cousins in the emerging space sector.

It will not work with Elon Musk-owned Starlink, but Taiwan plans to establish a satellite communications network by 2029.

During the technology trial, a 5G user terminal on Earth successful connected to the OneWeb satellite, Eutelsat said on Feb. 24.

Sixteen companies were selected in 2023 to compete for task orders.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

“The root cause was identified as a software issue within the ground segment,” Eutelsat said on Jan. 2.