maritime

Commercial spaceports seen as the future for European launch
Actors engaged in the emerging European commercial launch sector are looking to European commercial spaceports to be established rather than shipping rockets farther afield.

Portugal mulls Atlantic-focused constellation
Portugal’s newly created space agency is considering a national constellation focused on maritime activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

UnseenLabs plans to launch half dozen ship-tracking cubesats in 2020
French startup UnseenLabs intends to launch up to six more ship-tracking cubesats next year to build on the success of its first satellite.

Inmarsat preps new maritime product to fend off KVH competition
Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat’s CEO, said Nov. 8 that the company is taking steps to retain customers in its largest market segment, having identified broadband for social use among crews as the missing component of Inmarsat’s maritime service offering.

Telenor Satellite eyes even split between broadcast, connectivity businesses
Morten Tengs, Telenor Satellite’s CEO, says direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting is still the largest revenue generator for the operator, but Thor-7 now has “a substantial maritime datacom business,” as well as some land-based customers in the Middle East.

5 Markets | KVH turns to Intelsat EpicNG to speed up maritime broadband service
KVH Industries, a mobile satellite communications equipment and service provider, is preparing to offer broadband in early 2018 to commercial and private maritime customers through satellite fleet operator Intelsat’s EpicNG constellation.

Harris-exactEarth partnership promises minute-by-minute ship tracking
Harris Corp. and Canada’s exactEarth are establishing a space-based constellation of more than 60 maritime-tracking sensors to enable government and commercial customers to pinpoint the location of ships around the world nearly instantaneously.

Global Eagle says no “fraud or misconduct” behind recent exec departures
Content and satellite-connectivity provider Global Eagle Entertainment shot down swirling concerns that its recent changes in executive leadership and concurrent overdue financial statements were the result of any misbehavior on the company’s part.

KVH launching HTS upgrade this year, preps for OneWeb
Maritime satellite services and hardware provider KVH is kicking off an upgrade to mix high-throughput capacity from geostationary and low Earth orbit satellites into its network, CEO Martin Kits van Heyningen said Jan. 10.

Aircraft satellite connectivity buys maritime with GEE’s $550 million purchase of EMC
Aeronautical content and satellite-connectivity provider Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE) on May 9 said it would purchase maritime satellite services provider EMC for $550 million in the latest consolidation in the mobile satellite business.