Hughes Communications India Pvt Ltd, (HCIPL), a majority-owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC and Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s premier communications solution provider, today announced the formation of a joint venture to provide satellite broadband services in India.

NextGen Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ: NGCA) ) stockholders today approved the previously-announced business combination with Vieco USA, Inc., the parent company of Virgin Orbit, at a special meeting of stockholders held today. A Form 8-K disclosing the full voting results is expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Unlike the IBC, which was canceled at the last minute, World Satellite Business Week organized by Euroconsult, went ahead in December 2021 in Paris as planned.  Normally an in-person only event, held in September, the December event was both in-person and online, resulting in close to normal attendance.  Euroconsult took extraordinary precautions, including making on-site Covid-19 testing available.

We're finally near the end of 2021 and for most people, it couldn't come fast enough. It's been a very challenging   year not only for the satellite industry but for pretty much the global economy.

As I've pointed out in several previous articles in this publication (The Satellite Industry in a Post-Pandemic World," September 2021 and The Satellite Industry in the Time of Covid-19, April 2020), some sectors may not have been impacted by the pandemic as others, but impacted nonetheless.

Pandemics are Here to Stay

ST Engineering today announced that its Corporate Venture Capital unit, ST Engineering Ventures Pte Ltd led a US$ 30 million Series A round in Israel-based hiSky Ltd., a  developer and provider of affordable and agile satellite Internet of Things (IoT) networks and solutions, with participation from SDF (Strategic Development Fund), the investment arm of Tawazun Holding, and hiSky’s existing shareholders.

In the Terminator films, an artificial intelligence system called Skynet is put in charge of the US nuclear deterrent.  After some consideration, it reaches the not-unreasonable conclusion that human beings are dangerous.  Cue Armageddon, followed by a long mopping-up operation to ensure that humans will never pose a threat to a world now run by machines.  

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.

Th​​​​​​​e November 2021 issue of  the Satellite Executive Briefing magazine focusing on the African Satellite Market sponsored by iKO Media Group is now available.  Featuring: Update on the African Satellite Market by Omkar Nikam Satellite Data Analytics Market by Prateek Yadav Dead Ringers by Lou Zacharilla Ground Segment:  All Change for a new Satcoms Era by Martin Jarrold Better Satellite World: Satellites by the Dozen PLUS Products Spotlight, Mergers and Acquisitions, Executive Moves, Market Briefs, Vital Statistics, Satellite Markets Stock Index and many more. 

Rocket Lab acquires space hardware company Planetary Systems Corporation (“PSC”).  Crux CFO Advisors was the exclusive financial advisor in the transacation.

Technical paper and panel proposals are now being accepted for the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology (BEIT) track of the NAB Show Conference, held at the