Artist’s rendition of satellites orbiting the Earth – rottenman/123RF Stock Photo
This week were looking at some of the latest news from the space sector, including the UK Space Conference, Project Kuiper satellite launches, and the extension of the agreement for the use of Europe’s spaceport!
UK Space Conference
As well seeing the dates for Oasis’s homecoming concerts in Manchester, this week the city is also flooded with members of the space community, as the 16th and 17th July sees the biennial UK Space Conference taking place.
The theme for 2025 will be ‘Space for Growth’ with lots of talks, workshops, panel sessions, and exhibitors, the conference will give attendees the opportunity to learn, meet and network with colleagues from all parts of the space sector.
Pixalytics will be represented at the conference by our Managing Director, Dr Samantha Lavender who is attending. Samantha is also taking part in the ‘Early Market Engagement: TRUTHS Ground Segment Export Opportunities and the Industrial Strategy’ panel session taking place on Thursday between 14:50 and 15:50.
We look forward to meeting everyone in Manchester this week.
Project Kuiper Satellite Launches
It is anticipated that on Wednesday 16th July, 24 Amazon Project Kuiper internet broadband satellites will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida – although there is a concern that the weather may intervene and could cause a postponement.
The Project Kuiper satellites will be put into a Low Earth Orbit at an altitude of 289 miles, where they will join the existing constellation of 54 satellites that were mostly launched in April and June this year.
The ambition of Project Kuiper is to rival SpaceX’s Starlink service, which makes it interesting that their satellites are being launched by SpaceX! Amazon, through Project Kuiper, is hoping to offer global internet broadband to those areas with poor coverage by the end of 2025. Reports suggest that Amazon will offer three different speeds of 100 megabits per second, up to 400 megabits per second, and up to 1 gigabit per second.
Although the costs of the different service levels are still to be confirmed, finance firms are predicting potentially billions of dollars of revenue from the service. There are also suggested synergies with Amazon’s other businesses, particularly though offering private connections to Amazon Web Services. meaning users would not need to operate through public infrastructure which could offer benefits in terms of security and connectivity.
Guiana Space Centre
Last week the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French Government have signed an agreement to ensure the continued use of the Guiana Space Centre for European satellite launches for the next decade.
It is expected that the Centre in French Guiana will be developed to enable it to support the new launch providers in the coming years, as well as the continued use of the Ariane and Vega launchers. The Centre’s unique geographical location means it can offer launch facilities in all directions depending on satellite need.
The new agreement includes various updates to the responsibilities for governance, funding, and operational use, for example, new criteria for addressing launch schedule conflicts, establishment of a strategic ESA–CNES (French Space Agency) committee for decision-making, recommendations, monitoring and coordination for the Centre, amongst other things.
Summary
It’s an exciting week for the space sector, particularly in the UK, and we expect to learn about the exciting things happening in our industry this week.
