Mile WiFi club (6/6/23)

Good morning. Happy Tuesday! We’re excited to see some of you at our DC event tonight.

In today's edition...
💻 WiFi at 30,000 feet
🎙️ Pathfinder #0050
🔁 On the move

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

OneWeb and Hughes Partner on In-Flight Connectivity

OneWeb is looking to cement its place in the IFC (in-flight connectivity) market through a new distribution partnership with Hughes that will add LEO broadband connectivity to its in-flight WiFi offerings.

The partnership: Under the agreement, Hughes, which already offers IFC services to airlines, will utilize OneWeb’s constellation to offer LEO-specific connectivity. Airlines will be able to install Hughes’ electronically steered arrays to connect with the LEO sats.

The partnership covers two IFC packages for airline customers:

1. A LEO-only offering

2. A fusion offering, which would switch between LEO and GEO connectivity as needed throughout a flight

This partnership follows an agreement last year between OneWeb and GoGo Business Aviation that also used Hughes arrays to provide LEO IFC service to business flights.

Sussing the market: Euroconsult estimates that 9,900 commercial aircraft operated by more than 120 airlines offer WiFi in the skies, according to a report on the state of IFC published last year, but there’s lots of room for growth. By 2031, the report predicted, more than double that number of aircraft will have WiFi connectivity in flight, representing ~58% market penetration.

The past few years, competition between broadband providers has been heating up in the aviation market. Viasat has deals to provide connectivity from GEO to Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, and a number of other airlines. On the LEO side, SpaceX launched its Starlink Aviation service last year and has signed agreements with JSX and Hawaiian Airlines.

Sponsored

Meet Millennium

Millennium Space Systems is an end-to-end small satellite prime contractor, delivering full mission solutions to customers. From design, build, integration and test to mission operations and training, the team enables customers’ missions. Their in-house ground software enables system operations, and the autonomy they have developed allows for near lights-out operations.

The company is a prime contractor known for designing and building high-performance small satellites in incredibly fast timelines. Its small satellite constellations work across orbits on national security, science and other missions.

Turnkey Access to Space and Pathfinder #0050 with Pierre-Damien Vaujour

How do you get Blackrock to lead your $140M funding round? You’ll have to listen to this week’s Pathfinder podcast with Loft Orbital's CEO and cofounder, Pierre-Damien Vaujour, to find out.

The SF-based company provides a turnkey solution for launching, deploying, and operating small satellites, giving more players access to space. Loft’s business model could be most simplified as a fulfillment model for the space industry. The company buys satellite buses in bulk and integrates customer payloads via their universal hub interface. The company’s proprietary satellite management software simplifies the notoriously complex task of spacecraft operations.

The key value prop? Help customers get to space in months, not years.

Loft has made some notable strides in the market, including two recent contracts with government and commercial customers:

• Loft Orbital will build, launch, and operate a fleet of 10 Earth-observation satellites for EDA. The satellites will be built on modified OneWeb platforms.

• Loft is also working with Ball Aerospace and Microsoft on the SDA's NExT program, which aims to launch 10 satellites carrying experimental payloads into orbit.

What to expect?

Mo and Pierre-Damien had a wide-ranging conversation, including highlights such as:

• Loft’s business model vs. competitors

• Space-as-a-service to space-infrastructure-as-a-service

• Future innovations in the satellite industry

• Toulouse, and why it’s the aerospace capital of Europe

• And much more…

Pathfinder #0050 is live now…

…check it out on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or desktop. And reply to this email to let us know what you think!

In Other News

• Psyche, NASA’s flagship mission to visit the eponymous asteroid, is back on track for launch in October.

• The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have rescheduled the NDAA markup to June 21 after being delayed during debt limit negotiations.

• SpaceX launched CRS-28 to the ISS.

• Blue Origin announced it will to resume suborbital New Shepard flights within a few weeks.

• Asteroid mining is a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

The View from Space

We can’t stop staring at JWST’s latest capture: this stunning image of NGC 5068, a barred spiral galaxy about 17M light-years from Earth.