News from World Satellite Business Week | AsiaSat planning small HTS satellite to cover China

View this email in your browser SpaceNews' show daily for Euroconsult's World Satellite Business Week in Paris, Sept. 11-15 September 14, 2017 SPACENEWS' DAILY COVERAGE BROUGHT TO YOU BY Asiasat plans small HTS satellite to cover Chna Caleb Henry — Hong Kong-based fleet operator AsiaSat will soon order a "modest"-size high-throughput satellite  (HTS) that will leverage the company's access to the Chinese market, Barrie Woolston, AsiaSat's chief commercial officer, said Sept. 14. "We've looked long and hard at what we can use existing capacity for, and when we will make the leap into HTS," Woolston said here at the World Satellite Business Week conference. "We are at that stage now where we are specifying a new satellite … that will hit the streets in 36 months time." Woolston said AsiaSat is in discussions with manufacturers about the new satellite, called AsiaSat-10, which will be in orbit by 2020. China will be a primary focus for the satellite. SEE FULL STORY Japanese startup raises $7.3 million for smallsat antenna sharing service Caleb Henry — Infostellar, a Tokyo startup creating a service that lets smallsat operators tap into ground stations around the world, has raised $7.3 million from a team that includes the early-stage investor arms of Airbus and Sony. Airbus Ventures led the 21-month-old company's Series A capital raise, with the Sony Innovation Fund and four other Japanese investors — D4V, FreakOut Holdings, 500 Startups Japan, and Weru Investment contributing. Infostellar plans to use the money to launch a cloud-based satellite antenna-sharing platform called StellarStation next month, and to hire additional employees.  Infostellar's service works by pooling idle time on established satellite operator's ground station antennas into a network connected by a sharing module. Naomi Kurahara, Infostellar's co-founder and chief executive, told SpaceNews the company has five partner stations to date, spread across Africa and Asia. SEE FULL STORY Growing new EO data markets will require user-friendly approaches, say executives Tereza Pultarova — Providing a user-friendly experience together with in-depth understanding of customers' needs will be key for the growth of Earth-observation data use in new markets in the upcoming years, according to industry leaders.   Speaking at the World Satellite Business Week here Sept. 14 top executives of the leading players in the Earth-observation data market agreed that the sector has a huge growth potential.   New constellations and satellites will not be a threat to commercial Earth observation's established players but rather a needed contribution as by far not enough data is currently available to create applications with a potential to revolutionize multiple sectors including agriculture, insurance and finance markets, and infrastructure asset management.   SEE FULL STORY Greater standardization only way to meet demand for faster, cheaper satellites, builders say Tereza Pultarova — Pressure for faster delivery of satellites, the arrival of mega-constellations and requirements for quicker introduction of innovative technologies is pushing satellite manufacturers towards more standardization as the industry faces what has been described as unprecedented changes. "The lead times used to be 36 months," said Jean-Loïc Galle, president and CEO of Thales Alenia Space. "Now customers are asking between 12 and 18 months of lead time of production. We all know it is extremely difficult to build a satellite in 12 months." Meeting such requirements, he said, is only possible by using standardized buses and payloads that could be just taken off the shelf.  SEE FULL STORY Q&A | Astroscale's Chris Blackerby aims to turn a profit by cleaning up space Caleb Henry— Astroscale is creating a service the space industry knows it needs even if there's disagreement over who should pay for it. Removing out-of-commission satellites from orbit — including pre-planned de-orbits and unplanned but important debris removal — form the crux of Astroscale's business plan. The company's two satellites, Idea OSG-1 to monitor debris and ELSA-d to demonstrate de-orbit procedures, are scheduled to launch in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Idea OSG-1 is manifested on a Glavkosmos Soyuz.  Investors have backed Astroscale's vision to the tune of $53 million, showing meaningful confidence in the four-year-old company's ability to clean up literally and financially.  SEE FULL STORY Follow SpaceNews Advertise with Us SN FIRST UP Satcom is sent out every Wednesday by SpaceNews Staff Writer Caleb Henry and SpaceNews Editor-in-Chief Brian Berger. Copyright © 2017 SPACENEWS, All rights reserved.