Space Business Review a Monthly Round-Up of Space Industry Developments for the Information of Our Clients and Friends
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Space Business Review A monthly round-up of space industry developments for the information of our clients and friends. February 2018 FORMATION OF SEAMLESS AIR ALLIANCE FEBRUARY LAUNCH SERVICES On February 26, Airbus SE, Delta Air Lines, January 31 – Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (Delta), OneWeb, Ltd., Sprint Corporation Corp. successfully launched the GovSat-1 CONTACTS: and Bharti Airtel Limited announced the satellite (also known as SES-16) for GovSat, a formation of the Seamless Air Alliance, which brand operated by the LuxGovSat S.A. public- Dara A. Panahy 202-835-7521 plans to use satellite technology to enhance the private partnership between the government of [email protected] connectivity experience of air travelers. By Luxembourg and SES S.A., on a flight-proven streamlining system integration and certification, Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Manufactured by Bijan Ganji offering open specifications for interoperability Orbital ATK, Inc., GovSat-1 will support civil 202-835-7543 and simplifying and integrating billing methods, and defense applications, including secure [email protected] the alliance expects to be able to reduce the costs communications for Luxembourg’s military and eliminate the challenges associated with the operations, from the 21.5°E orbital location. acquisition, installation and operation of data February 1 – A Russian Soyuz-2.1a launch To learn about Milbank’s access infrastructure. The goal of the alliance is to vehicle successfully orbited four Lemur-2 Space Business Practice, or enable the provision of continuous high-speed, satellites for Spire Global, Inc., along with two view previous issues of the low-latency connectivity services to users Kanopus-V Earth observation satellites for the Space Business Review, worldwide, whether on the ground or in the air. Russian government and seven other small please visit www.milbank.com. The alliance hopes to add additional members in satellites under federal and commercial contracts due course; Delta already announced that Gogo, with Joint Stock Company GLAVKOSMOS. The information contained Inc. will also be joining the alliance. February 6 – Space Exploration Technologies herein is provided for Corp. (SpaceX) successfully conducted the first informational purposes only DISH ACQUIRES PARKIFI test flight of its Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. The and should not be construed On February 1, DISH Network Corporation mission qualifies the Falcon Heavy as the most as legal advice on any subject (DISH) announced that it acquired connected powerful launch vehicle currently operated in the matter. Recipients of this parking solutions startup ParkiFi, Inc. (ParkiFi) publication should not take or world – the Falcon Heavy can lift nearly 141,000 for an undisclosed amount. Based in Denver, refrain from taking any action lbs. into orbit – and will enable SpaceX to bid on ParkiFi has developed IoT-enabled, wireless, based upon content included NASA and U.S. Air Force contracts for the single-space parking sensors and gateways, herein. If you do not wish to launch of satellites that are too large for SpaceX’s which enable parking operators to monitor receive this newsletter, please other launch vehicle, the Falcon 9. availability and guide drivers to open spaces. send an e-mail to February 22 – Space Exploration [email protected] According to DISH, the acquisition is part of the Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully with the word “unsubscribe” in company’s 5G wireless broadband strategy, for launched the PAZ satellite for Spanish the subject line. which DISH is currently building out a national government satellite operator Hisdesat Servicios narrowband IoT network. DISH intends to draw © 2018 - Milbank, Tweed, Estratégicos S.A. (Hisdesat), as well as SpaceX’s upon ParkiFi’s expertise in connecting low- Hadley & McCloy LLP. first two Starlink demonstration satellites, on a powered sensors with gateways to the cloud in flight-proven Falcon 9 launch vehicle. PAZ is a order to support testing and learning as DISH synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite deploys its IoT network, which is expected to be manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space complete by March 2020. ParkiFi will continue (Airbus). Hisdesat and Airbus plan to operate to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of DISH PAZ with the German TerraSAR-X and under the ParkiFi brand. TanDEM-X radar satellites to form a SAR SES AND INTELSAT C-BAND INITIATIVE constellation. Starlink is SpaceX’s planned low- On February 9, SES. S.A. and Intelsat S.A. Earth orbit constellation of 4,500 satellites that submitted together a proposal to the U.S. will provide broadband services worldwide. Federal Communications Commission, seeking OPEN COSMOS SELECTS VECTOR protection of established satellite services in the On February 14, Vector Launch, Inc. (Vector) 3700-4200 MHz C-band downlink spectrum announced that it was selected by Open Cosmos while also identifying roughly 100 MHz of that Ltd. (Open Cosmos) to perform five orbital spectrum for terrestrial mobile use. The proposal launches between 2019 and 2023 using the represents a proactive measure by the two Vector-R launch vehicle. Open Cosmos is an satellite operators to contribute toward the end-to-end space mission services provider that resolution of regulatory uncertainty relating to, enables clients to focus on in-orbit data from a and also to accelerate the deployment of, next variety of nanosatellite missions. Vector’s first generation 5G infrastructure and services. orbital launch is scheduled for July of this year. Milbank.com .