Photo: Infostellar

Viasat signed a Real-Time Earth (RTE) agreement with Infostellar, the operator revealed Monday, and will be a preferred supplier of antennas for Infostellar’s network of ground stations. Additionally, Viasat will act as a market channel lead for Infostellar services in the U.S., and Infostellar will be a Japanese market channel lead for Viasat’s RTE network.

Infostellar’s StellarStation service is a cloud-based software platform that enables the virtualization of ground stations around the world to provide Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS). The service has backing from Airbus Ventures, Daiwa Energy and Infrastructure, Mitsubishi UFJ Lease and Finance, and Sony.

Viasat’s RTE network provides GSaaS for both commercial and government Earth Observation (EO) and remote sensing communities. Viasat’s RTE service supports next-generation and legacy Low Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellites using the S-, X- and Ka-bands. By working with Infostellar, Viasat Vice President (VP) of RTE Services John Williams expects “to drive the RTE industry forward as we grow our network in terms of locations, like in Japan, and cloud-based GSaaS capabilities.”

Infostellar Founder and CEO Naomi Kurahara added: “We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to join with Viasat in this cooperative RTE agreement. Our services and approach to the marketplace are very complementary and compatible, as are our diverse locations in key world markets. Having Viasat RTE as our market channel partner in the U.S., as well as our preferred supplier of ground stations truly positions Infostellar right at the center of the growing global GSaaS market.”