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Entry of new communications service providers in the form of satcom created a spark in the sector with Elon Musk-led Starlink getting permission to start services but pending security clearance and delay in decision over spectrum pricing have pushed its potential roll out to the next year. Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told PTI that satcom services, which were earlier a figment of imagination, will be a reality soon. "We have given out three licences. You are looking at, hopefully, very soon, the pricing norm coming out for administratively assigned spectrum and that satellite technology being also offered in our bouquet of offerings to the public," Scindia said. Entry of Starlink is expected to add to the competition in the premium segment, which is dominated by telecom operators -- mainly Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. The government has been making an effort to revive Vodafone Idea (VIL) and BSNL to check the market from getting into a duopoly and continue to keep
SpaceX launched another of its mammoth Starship rockets on a test flight Monday, striving to make it halfway around the world while releasing mock satellites like last time. Starship the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built thundered into the evening sky from the southern tip of Texas. The booster was programmed to peel away and drop into the Gulf of Mexico, with the spacecraft skimming space before descending into the Indian Ocean. Nothing was being recovered. It was the 11th test flight for a full-scale Starship, which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk intends to use to send people to Mars. NASA's need is more immediate. The space agency cannot land astronauts on the moon by decade's end without the 403-foot (123-meter) Starship, the reusable vehicle meant to get them from lunar orbit down to the surface and back up. Instead of remaining inside Launch Control as usual, Musk said that for the first time, he was going outside to watch much more visceral. The previous test
Starlink is "excited" and fully focused on being ready to offer Indians a secure, compliant, and high-quality broadband experience, Starlink's India market access director Parnil Urdhwareshe said on Wednesday. The comment assumes significance given the growing public anticipation over satcom rollout in India with prominent companies including billionaire Elon Musk-owned Starlink, Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, and Reliance Jio-SES, keenly eyeing the high-stakes game of broadband beamed from Indian skies. Urdhwareshe praised extensive government efforts, citing coordination across the Ministry of Communications, TRAI, DOS, InSpace, and DPIIT. "We're just focused on being ready to provide Indians who want that option with a compliant, secure and great experience. And we're really excited with all of the fantastic work that the government is doing, and you see this in concert across the Ministry of Communications, the TRAI, the DoS (Department of Space), InSpace, the DPIIT, everybody'
A supply ship arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday after a day's delay due to a premature engine shutdown. Astronauts used the space station's robot arm to pluck Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsule from orbit as they soared over Africa. The 5,000-kilogram shipment should have reached the space station Wednesday, three days after blasting off from Florida. But when the capsule tried to climb higher, its main engine shut down too soon. Engineers traced the problem to an overly conservative software setting. This is the first flight of the extra-large version of the Cygnus, which is packed with food, science experiments and equipment for the space station's toilet and other systems. NASA holds contracts with Northrop Grumman as well as SpaceX to keep the orbiting lab well stocked. Russia also sends supplies, and Japan is about to resume deliveries as well. Northrop Grumman named its latest capsule the S S Willie McCool after the pilot of the doomed 2003 flight of space