Introduction: Satellite phones – once niche gadgets for explorers and emergency crews – are now at the forefront of a connectivity revolution in 2025. A surge of new developments, from flagship smartphones gaining satellite messaging to space companies partnering with mobile carriers, has pushed satellite communication into mainstream awareness interactive.satellitetoday.com interactive.satellitetoday.com. Multiple generations of iPhones,…
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Introduction: A New Space Race for Broadband A revolution is underway above our heads. In the past year alone, companies and governments worldwide have turbocharged efforts to beam high-speed internet from space down to Earth. SpaceX’s Starlink constellation has surpassed 8,000 satellites launched since 2019, amassing over 5 million users across 125+ countries reuters.com. In…
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Introduction: A New Era of Military Satcom is Here The U.S. Space Force has quietly teamed with SpaceX to create a secretive satellite Internet constellation for the military. Dubbed “MILNET,” this government-owned but SpaceX-operated network will comprise “480-plus” small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) breakingdefense.com. Announced in June 2025, the MILNET contract marks a…
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Introduction A recent viral report claimed that Elon Musk “bypassed” Iran’s total internet blackout by activating Starlink for 20,000 hidden satellite terminals inside the country. The dramatic story – emerging amid an escalating conflict involving Iran and Israel – suggests that Musk’s SpaceX satellites beamed uncensored internet to Iranians after the regime tried to cut…
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Background: A Long-Defunct NASA Satellite (Relay 2) Relay 2 is an experimental communications satellite NASA launched on January 21, 1964, as part of the early Relay programen.wikipedia.org. Similar in design to its predecessor Relay 1, this satellite was built by RCA and tasked with relaying television signals and studying Earth’s radiation beltsen.wikipedia.or en.wikipedia.org. After a successful launch atop…
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Starlink Cleared to Operate in India Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service has secured an official license in India, marking a major milestone in the country’s telecom sector. In mid-June 2025, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) granted Starlink a Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) services license economictimes.indiatimes.com economictimes.indiatimes.com. This approval – confirmed publicly…
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Who Controls the Skies – FAA vs. Local Authority Drones have soared in popularity in Los Angeles, but navigating the patchwork of laws can be daunting. Both federal and local authorities play roles in regulating drone use. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has exclusive authority over U.S. airspace – it sets nationwide rules for how,…
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In June 2025 the French government announced a €1.35 billion capital injection into Eutelsat, Europe’s leading satellite operator marketscreener.com. Under the plan, the state (via its Agence des participations de l’État) will invest €717 million and absorb France’s existing 13.6% stake (held by the state bank Bpifrance), boosting its holding to 29.99% marketscreener.com spacenews.com. This deal makes…
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Astronomers were stunned when a 1960s NASA satellite suddenly “blinked” to life. On 13 June 2024, the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia detected an extraordinarily brief yet intense radio pulse lasting <30 nanoseconds and peaking at over 300,000 Jy chron.com n2yo.com. By tracing the signal in Earth’s vicinity (within ~12,400 miles…
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Executive Summary: The Pentagon has long sought a “space internet” – an integrated military satellite network that automatically routes data across U.S., allied, and commercial satellites. This enterprise SATCOM vision promises resilience and high-speed connectivity, but it has been dogged by technical, bureaucratic, and industrial challenges. Recent reporting and studies show that legacy hardware, fragmented…
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