News Analysis

by Martin Jarrold

As I began writing this column news was filtering over media about the decision of the World Health Organization to designate the latest mutations to the spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus as a “variant of concern”, and to use the Greek letter Omicron to name it (rather than the original designation of B.1.1.529). Thanks to the skills of scientists at South Africa’s Medical Research Council Genomics Centre the exact sequencing of the new variant was speedily completed and its details promulgated quickly to their colleagues in sister agencies around the world.

The December 2021 Year in Review issue of the Satellite Executive Briefing magazine sponsored by Gazprom Space Systems is now available.  Featuring:

The Most Significant Storylines in 2021  by Virgil Labrador

Taiwan: A Serious and Up-and-Coming Player in the Space Industry by Aurélie Gillet

Executive Spotlight: Igor Kot, Deputy Secretary-General, Gazprom Space Systems

Company Spotlight: ND SATCOM: Flexibility, Agility and Resilience 

A Year to Remember and A Year Ahead​  by Martin Jarrold

In Skynet We Trust by Robert Bell

PLUS Products Spotlight, Mergers and Acquisitions, Executive Moves, Market Briefs, Vital Statistics, Satellite Markets Stock Index and many more. Click here to read or download the file

Denver, Colo., December 2, 2021--Rocket Lab acquires space hardware company Planetary Systems Corporation (“PSC”).  Crux CFO Advisors was the exclusive financial advisor in the transacation.

Hong Kong, November 25, 2021– The traditional satcom industry continues to be in a state of rapid change, and still in a state of turmoil. While the industry is currently dominated by a handful of major players, this could also change dramatically over the next five years as new technologies and standards reset the competitive landscape. And despite the impact of Covid, there has been no let-up of interest in investment into the space industry with US$  5.5 Billion in collective proceeds from all 13 space Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) transactions. This was the highlights of the presentation by Caleb Henry, Senior Analyst, Quilty Analytics at the Satellite Industry Forum organized by the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA)  last week. 

Denver, Colo., November 22, 2021-- Voyager Space Inc.  today announced its intent to acquire a majority stake in San Diego-based Space Micro. Space Micro is a highly innovative engineering-driven business focused on advancing high-performance satellite communications, digital, and electro-optical systems with over 2.7 million hours of space flight heritage.

Ottawa, Canada, November 19, 2021--November 19, 2021 – Telesat Corporation announced today that it is now a public company and will begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“NASDAQ”) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) under the ticker symbol “TSAT”. This follows the closing of Telesat’s previously announced transaction with Loral Space & Communications Inc. and Public Sector Pension Investment Board in which Loral’s stockholders and Telesat Canada’s other equityholders have exchanged their interests for equity in Telesat’s new public holding structure.  Telesat did not issue new equity to raise additional cash financing as part of the Transaction.

Tampa, Fl., November 15, 2021 - NIC4, a division of Network Innovations, Inc., announces the acquisition of U.S. government contractor, Knight Sky LLC. The acquisition will effectively combine the expertise of both companies, enhancing the development and delivery of agile, secure and mission critical connectivity solutions for the collective clients of each organization. NIC4 will complement the existing Knight Sky managed network services with advanced technologies in the NIC4 MAVERICK VSAT services and will add additional resources and support to Knight Sky’s contracted U.S. Space Force Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) SATCOM Enterprise Management & Control (EM&C) Program.

TECHBrief on Optical Communications sponsored by WORK Microwave

A summary of the technology of optical communications for satellite applications. 

To read or download the pdf of full report click here.

New York, NY, November 12, 2021--Laser communications specialist Mynaric AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange; M0Y, ISIN: DE000A0JCY11) announced that its management board today resolved, with the approval of the supervisory board, on the volume and the issue price of the public offering of American Depositary Shares (“ADSs“). The offering will produce gross proceeds of US$ 66,000,000 from the sale of 1,000,000 new ordinary shares of Mynaric in the form of 4,000,000 ADSs at a price of US$16.50 per ADS.

Carlsbad, Calif., Nov. 8, 2021-- Viasat Inc., (NASDAQ: VSAT) and Inmarsat, a today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Viasat will acquire Inmarsat in a transaction valued at US$ 7.3 billion, comprised of US$ 850.0 million in cash, approximately 46.36 million shares of Viasat common stock valued at US$ 3.1 billion based on the closing price on Friday November 5, 2021, and the assumption of US$ 3.4 billion of net debt.