An SSC antenna. Photo: SSC

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) revealed Tuesday that its U.K. subsidiary was awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Global Newspace Network Evolution (GNNetE) initiative. SSC will develop a next generation concept for space to ground communications, specifically for the cubesat and smallsat markets.

The GNNetEt initiative is supported by the U.K. Space Agency, and aims to develop new technologies to address market entry barriers faced by cubesat operators and manufacturers. The SSC UK team is working with a range of European cubesat manufacturers and technology partners to develop solutions to mitigate problems such as spectrum allocation and effective management of spacecraft constellations.

SSC U.K. Managing Director John Stuart commented: “This program acts as a catalyst for the development of next generation satellite communications systems and marks the start of the journey of our UK venture to become a world leading player in this field. We have a very ambitious growth target and we are grateful for the support of the UK Space Agency, ESA and the wider space community that has embraced our activities.”