Near-misses are nothing new, but with over 8,000 smallsats to be launched in the next decade, the chances of collision will continue to rise. Results would be disruptive, to say the least, and not the way the satellite industry tends to endorse. Extraneous satellite maneuvers, malfunction, orbital debris, loss of orbital slot, change in launch trajectory & schedule; these would be the minor consequences.
While generally not driving as much hype as other technology trends in the satellite ecosystem, Ground Segment virtualization is arguably one of the most critical transformations the industry will experience in the coming years, as noted in NSR’s Commercial Satellite Ground Segment, 4th Edition report. Key to enabling scalability and flexibility of the networks, infrastructure vendors, integrators and operators are racing to adopt a new virtual framework. What are the key aspects of this transition?
Financial markets have had an oversized impact on the satcom industry of late. We have observed an alarming 35%-50% decline in stock prices of SES, Intelsat, Eutelsat and ViaSat in just over a month.
The satellite industry is in the midst of the largest transformation since the inception of satellite communications over five decades ago. In this new era that can be referred to as “the 21st-century Space Race”, innovations in space technology have converged to pave the way for a truly disrupt-able environment.
With more data being created and circulated than ever before, Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technology is emerging to serve the demand for higher data rates and lower latency, acting as an alternative or complementary to RF.