
Broadband


Live coverage: SpaceX launches Boeing-built telecom satellite for Asia-Pacific
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:10 p.m. EST Monday (0010 GMT Tuesday) with the JCSAT 18/Kacific 1 communications satellite, heading for a position in geostationary orbit to beam broadband signals across the Asia-Pacific. The launcher deployed the satellite into an on-target orbit, and the first stage returned to land on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.




SpaceX to experiment with less-reflective satellite coatings on next Starlink launch
SpaceX’s next launch of satellites for the company’s Starlink broadband network — planned in the final days of 2019 — will carry one spacecraft with an experimental coating designed to make it less reflective in orbit, a first step in assuaging concerns from scientists who say the deployment of thousands more Starlink stations would impede some astronomical observations.



Live coverage: Ariane 5 rocket launches with satellites for Egypt and Inmarsat
After a four-day delay due to a ground power supply anomaly and unfavorable weather, an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off at 4:23 p.m. EST (2123 GMT) Tuesday to send into orbit a hush-hush communications satellite for the Egyptian military and a spacecraft to expand the capacity of Inmarsat’s mobile Internet service.
