LEO Satellite Broadband Analysis | Satellite Insights Weekly

Orbital energy cost against launch price, from Starcloud's $30 per kilogram to the $500 its chief executive cited in March, at two spacecraft masses, beside the four-cent terrestrial figure.

LEO broadband

Deep Dive: Starcloud's Orbital Data Center Math Needs a $30 per Kilogram Launch

Starcloud's white paper puts a data center in space at one twentieth of the cost of one on the ground. Rerun with 2026 launch prices and spacecraft mass, the same arithmetic gives roughly two to four times more.

LEO broadband

The Delta and Starlink Fight Is About Who Holds the Passenger's Login

Musk says Delta wanted a portal. Delta says the portal was never the problem. Why the loyalty login, not the satellite, decides airline Wi-Fi awards.

Starship Flight 14 lifted off September 28, 2026, and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload flown on Starship.

LEO broadband

Starship Reached Orbit With 26 Starlink V3 Satellites. Here Is What They Cost Everyone Else.

SpaceX's Starship Flight 14 reached orbit with 26 Starlink V3 satellites on September 28, 2026. What ten times the capacity per satellite means for OneWeb, Amazon Leo, Telesat, SES and Viasat, and why the FCC's spectrum vote matters as much as the launch.

Bar of Amazon Leo's remaining contracted launch capacity by vehicle: Ariane 64, Vulcan and New Glenn hatched as grounded, Falcon 9 solid as flying, marker at 2,836 satellites still required.

LEO broadband

Amazon Ordered Six More Ariane 6 Launches Just as a Turbopump Problem Slowed the Rocket

Amazon Leo expanded its Arianespace order as a turbopump problem slowed Ariane 6, with Vulcan and New Glenn grounded. What it means for its FCC dates.

LEO broadband

The 5TB Wall: What Starlink's Unlimited Plan Actually Buys You

Heavy Starlink users report speeds cut to about 10 Mbps around 5TB a month. The notice cites business use on a personal plan, not a data cap.

GEO Economics

The Ka-Band Role Reversal: SpaceX Moves to Reopen the ViaSat-3 F2 Grant

SpaceX petitions the FCC to deny ViaSat-3 F2 market access in NGSO-primary Ka-band, filed on day 30 of the recon window. The role reversal, explained.

LEO broadband

Five Exits From a Band Nobody Flew

Eutelsat OneWeb surrendered its V-band grant in April 2025. Five operators have now left the FCC's first V-band processing round.

LEO broadband

Every Constellation Is Now a Starship Derivative

Launch capacity, not capital or spectrum, now gates every satellite constellation. Why the whole market's schedule has become a Starship derivative.

Direct-to-Device

AST SpaceMobile's 2027 D2D Delay — Analysis

AST SpaceMobile pushed direct-to-device service to 2027 and raised a billion dollars. Here is what the delay changes, and what it quietly does not.

LEO broadband

1.7 Million Satellites: Astronomers vs the FCC — Analysis

Companies have filed to launch ~1.7 million satellites. A new ESO study urges the FCC to cap the total at 100,000. What's at stake for the night sky.

Consolidation

The Week Consolidation Stopped Being a Forecast - Deep Dive Weekly

SES–Intelsat, Amazon–Globalstar, Rocket Lab–Iridium, SpaceX–EchoStar: ~$40B of satcom consolidation, and who gets absorbed next.

Direct-to-Device

The Capital Event: SpaceX's IPO and the Closing of the D2D Frontier - Deep Dive Weekly

SpaceX priced the largest IPO ever this week — but the same five trading days quietly hardened direct-to-device into a three-operator, spectrum-defined oligopoly. Verified analysis on SpaceX, Starlink, AST SpaceMobile, Globalstar, Amazon and Jio.