Focus: Ground Systems

As Chair of the SATELLITE conference, I am privileged to get an exciting behind-the-scenes view into the planning process that happens in the months leading to the event. The following is a list of takes that I felt stood out from a very busy week of conference sessions and keynote The satellite industry is a...

Boeing awarded a contract to Hughes Network Systems to develop mission management, system control, networking and ground hub capabilities supporting anti-jam satellite communications capability for the Air Force’s Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) program. Work on the contract was initiated in late 2018 and is expected to run through 2025. The PTES program aims to...

Iridium Communications unveiled its new southern hemisphere ground station, located in Punta Arenas, Chile. The addition of the Punta Arenas teleport network site adds geographic diversity to Iridium’s ground stations as its only southern hemisphere site, establishing a new layer of network redundancy for the constellation. The Punta Arenas site was built in partnership with Kongsberg...

Leidos awarded DataPath, a provider of communications solutions, a prime contract to provide software and integration support to a communications program located in the Antarctic. Leidos provides logistical support to the National Science Foundation (NSF)-managed United States Antarctic Program through the Antarctic Support Contract (ASC). Leidos administers a satellite communications ground network on behalf of this program,...

PSSI Global Services and Sydney Teleport Services (STS) have collaborated to establish a gateway between PSSI International Teleport (PIT) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the STS teleport in Sydney, Australia. This connection expands both companies’ broadcast footprints to cover the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions. This new bidirectional connection means PSSI Global Services customers now have...

U.K.-based communications services hub Goonhilly Earth Station entered into an agreement with a fellow startup launch facility, Shetland Space Center (SSC), to jointly promote and deliver launch, monitoring, and tracking capabilities, the companies announced Feb. 5. Both startup companies will collaborate on vertical and horizontal launch services for U.K. space customers from facilities at the extreme...

Infostellar and Teledyne Paradise Datacom (Paradise) revealed the interoperability of Infostellar’s ground station sharing platform, StellarStation, with the QubeFlex Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite modem — a flagship product of Paradise. Infostellar and Paradise aim to provide LEO satellite operators and ground station owners with a single system able to integrate with existing ground stations...

Goonhilly Earth Station has been making waves, quite literally, with its deep space antennas. The U.K.-based “gateway to space” has been around since the 1960s, but its new leadership team acquired the historic site from BT and began a new chapter in 2014. The company has been expanding its efforts — including new funding, offices,...

Ball Aerospace successfully completed the first communication demonstration between Telesat‘s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Phase 1 satellite and Ball’s fully electronically-steered flat panel antenna at Telesat’s Allan Park ground station in Ontario, Canada. Ball and Telesat are collaborating on the development of satellite communications terminals based on Ball’s antenna technology. As part of the demonstration,...

China HEAD Aerospace Technology Co. and its subsidiary HEAD Technology France (HEAD), has been awarded a key multi-million Euro contract in Ethiopia through a consortium led by HEAD and its partner, China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Applications (CRESDA). The contract was awarded by the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI).  The multi-million contract awarded...