Space Leasing International (SLI), a company that leases space infrastructure, has acquired a satellite ground station in Alaska.
Details about the location, seller, or terms of the deal weren’t shared.
The acquired ground station will be leased to Washington-based operator RBC Signals.
SLI was formed by holding company Libra Group earlier this year.
At launch, the company said it would build a satellite ground station in the Alaskan Arctic that will be leased to satellite data communications firm RBC Signals.
SLI then committed to acquiring or building an additional 20 ground stations around the world within the next three years, which will also be leased to RBC.
Libra currently operates companies in the aviation, real estate, hotel & hospitality, and renewable energy industries.
The company previously said LSI also aims to buy satellites and spaceports in the future.
Founded in 2015, RBC offers satellite communications and monitoring in VHF, UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku, Ka, and optical bands from a network of more than 50 company-owned and partner-owned sites.
The company’s first antenna that was installed in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2017; it now has six in Fairbanks and five in Deadhorse, Alaska, according to its website. The company added a 3.7 meter S and X-band antenna in Deadhorse over the summer.
Last month, Finland’s NorthBase signed an agreement to add two ground stations in Tampere and Muonio to RBC’s network.
In other space news:
- A CubeSat from satellite maker AAC Clyde Space has suffered a payload failure. The company said its 3U Space Data as a Service satellite Kelpie-2 suffered an anomaly of its payload antenna – reportedly from Oxford Space Systems – which did not deploy. The cause was identified as a “procedural issue” and has been corrected for future deployments.
“Due to the malfunction, the satellite will be unable to deliver the planned data services, and as such it is considered a total loss,” the company said. “The loss of the satellite has been reported to the company's insurer.”
Launched in June 2023, Kelpie-2 was to set to AIS data to IoT solutions provider Orbcomm Inc. Kelpie -1 was launched in January 2023. AAC Clyde Space said data deliveries to the customer from the company’s existing satellites continue unchanged.
- Elon Musk has denied reports that Starlink is gearing up for an IPO next year. The SpaceX CEO simply replied “False” on X (formerly Twitter) to a post linking to a Bloomberg report suggesting a 2024 IPO for the satellite broadband unit.
- World View, which developed the high-altitude balloons used by Google’s Project Loon, has dropped plans to go public via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
World View and Lion Capital-backed Leo Holdings Corp II this month announced they were canceling the planned merger – first announced in January 2023 – saying they “jointly determined that it was the best course of action at this time to not proceed.”
