Focus: Ground Systems

Swedish Space Corporation (SCC) has upgraded its Ka-band ground station network to provide global coverage. To do this, the company upgraded its polar and equatorial locations to support Ka-band data reception. SSC said this will allow the company to offer Earth Observation (EO) customers higher bandwidth and larger data volumes.  SSC announced Nov. 23 that...

Kymeta and Intelsat have participated in early testing of 5G standards over satellite, and reported Tuesday that the companies demonstrated satellite-enabled 5G service using Kymetas u8 antenna. Kymeta and Inteslat said this was the first test of its kind in a mobile environment.  The demonstration was done by applied research organization Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated...

Isotropic Systems reported Tuesday that the company’s terminal linked to a Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite while simultaneously connected with a Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite during tests with SES.  This is validation of Isotropic Systems’s optical beamforming technology that has been in development for years. The company says this demonstration makes satellite connectivity more attractive to...

SpaceBridge has delivered a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network to connect 2,000 locations in Oman, the company announced Oct. 26.  SpaceBridge worked with Space Communication Technologies (SCT), which is owned by the government of Oman. SpaceBridge delivered its multiple spot beam (MSB) Ka-band broadband VSAT Network, with the WaveSwitch multi-waveform platform. The network uses...

Leaf Space is partnering with Odysseus Space to develop a hybrid ground station network for both optical and radio frequency (RF) communications. Odysseus Space is working to develop an end-to-end free space optical communications solution called CYCLOPS. The companies said in a Tuesday announcement they will work to apply this technology to Leaf Space’s global...

Japanese Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) company Infostellar has raised 700 million yen ($6.16 million), in a Series B funding round. This brings total funding to 1.9 billion yen ($17 million). Infostellar said in a Oct. 21 announcement that the Series B round is still open and will close later this year.  Investors SPARX...

New Space is greedy for ground. Traditional Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites are stationary relative to the Earth — they hang at a fixed point in the sky and a single ground station can be in constant line-of-sight contact. But the New Space non-GEO constellations — in Low- or Medium-Earth orbit (LEO or MEO) —...

Ovzon has won a new contract worth close to $2 million to supply the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), with satellite terminals, the company announced Oct. 18. Ovzon will provide an unnamed DoD customer with 50 of its new, ultra-small, Ovzon T6 mobile satellite terminals. This represents the largest single order to date for the...

Leaf Space is adding five new ground stations in West and South Australia, British Colombia, Iceland and Bulgaria, the company announced Oct. 14. The aim is to further increase Leaf Space’s capability to provide GSaaS solutions to its customer base. Leaf Space, which is based in Lomazzo, Italy, will now operate 15 ground stations globally. The...

Ovzon, a satellite hardware company based in Sweden, has received an order for satellite terminals from an unnamed U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) customer. The order, announced Monday, marks the second new U.S. DoD customer for Ovzon in the last 90 days as the company looks to continue to expand its core customer base. Financial...