Make room for another competitor in the market to provide broadband Internet access from low earth orbit: Astra space, which is listed with the help of Seattle Telecom pioneer Craig McCaw and is requesting the Federal Communications Commission Authorized to launch up to 13620 bit beam satellites.
In today’s document, a subsidiary called Astra space platform services said that its V-band constellation will “bring new opportunities for selecting global enterprise, government and institutional users and partners to provide reliable high-speed communication services.”
Astra, headquartered in California, is best known as a startup. Last December, it launched a test rocket into space from the launch pad on Kodiak Island, Alaska, almost without deviation from orbit. Another orbital launch attempt is planned as early as this month.
Astra said its satellite would be built inside and launched by Astra’s own rocket. These satellites will be put into orbit at an altitude of 236 to 435 miles (380 to 700 kilometers) and will be equipped with propulsion systems to help avoid collisions and post operational derailment.
Potential applications for Astra’s high bandwidth connections include communication services, environmental and natural resource applications, and national security missions.
“Given the financing obtained through recent public offerings, vertically integrated launch capabilities and space system design and operation experience, Astra is fully capable of developing the project and introducing new space-based services, including communication solutions, while using spectris to maintain a safe space environment m, efficient and without harmful RF interference,” the company said.
Astra gained about $500 million in cash from its merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The company is led by McCaw and headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. Mccaff’s blank check company holicity is supported by a sponsorship fund called pendrell Corp., which includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
The combined company, worth more than $2 billion, went public in July. Astra’s share price was $12.30 when it was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and closed at $9.85 today.
We have contacted Astra and will update this report based on any information we hear.
McAfee currently serves on the board of directors of Astra. He started mobile communication services at McAfee cellular in the 1980s and early 1990s. The Seattle based company was acquired by at & T in 1994, a deal that made McAfee a billionaire. In the late 1990s, McAfee and Gates became one of the investors of teledesic, a failed company providing satellite telecommunications services.
When the Astra spac deal was announced in February, McAfee told investors that he had long believed that “there is a great opportunity to provide communication satellites (essentially the Internet in the air), and the Internet can be provided anywhere and anywhere.” he pointed out that SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper constellation plan proved that such a vision can be realized.
SpaceX is currently ahead of the satellite broadband competition and provides limited services through a constellation composed of more than 1600 satellites in low earth orbit. This week, Amazon sought authorization to launch its first prototype Kuiper satellite next year. The UK India oneweb company has 358 satellites in orbit and plans to start providing services in the Arctic this winter.
Also this week, Boeing obtained FCC authorization for the 147 satellite constellation, which must be fully deployed by 2030.
Like Astra, Boeing plans to operate in the V-band rather than the Ku and Ka bands targeted by SpaceX and Amazon. Unlike Astra, Boeing can obtain approval during the first round of FCC non geostationary satellite orbit service license. This means that during the second round of FCC review, Astra’s application will be accepted together with other LEO satellite applications submitted by telesat, Hughes, INMARSAT and other companies today.
If the FCC approves all ongoing applications, it will open the way for tens of thousands of satellites in low earth orbit. According to the database maintained by the alliance of relevant scientists, there are about 4550 operating satellites in orbit. Assuming these figures are correct, about a third of all these spacecraft are SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, which are manufactured at the company’s Redmond, Washington plant.