The Dish

As space becomes increasingly crowded and space missions become more ambitious, the ability to track an asset in orbit is critical. Orbit determination, defined as the estimation of an object’s orbit in space, enables an operator to ensure its satellite has the orbital accuracy to perform its mission, James Woodburn, fellow and chief orbital scientist at Ansys Government Initiatives, the national security division of software company Ansys, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. Orbital accuracy maximizes a satellite operator’s return on investment, he says. Software-defined satellites Woodburn is joined on the podcast by Jim Wertz, adjunct professor of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California and president of aerospace company Microcosm. “Orbit determination is a bear of a problem for spacecraft,” due to drastic changes in atmospheric density in orbit, Wertz says. The ability to reconfigure a satellite through software in response to atmospheric changes can preserve a mission, he says.  Woodburn and Wertz expect an uptake in lunar missions in 2025, despite NASA’s recent announcement that it will be delaying its Artemis program. “The idea of putting people back on the surface of the moon, I think, is extremely exciting,” Woodburn says. “And I think the best way for us to prepare for this is through the types of [orbit] analysis that we're capable of doing now.” Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with Woodburn and Wertz. 

For the over 5.2 million people who lost cellular service with hurricanes Helene and Milton, satellite connectivity provided a lifeline as Speedcast deployed more than 200 Starlink kits to crisis response teams in Florida and North Carolina. The connectivity provider accomplished this through a partnership with SpaceX, Will Mudge, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Houston-based Speedcast, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. The economic cost of hurricanes includes loss of connectivity, Mudge says. The 2024 hurricane season cost the U.S. $500 billion in damages, according to an estimate by meteorology company AccuWeather in a report published Dec. 2. And extreme weather events have cost the global economy $2 trillion over the past decade, according to a November report by the International Chamber of Commerce. People rely on connectivity for applications they may not be aware of, Mudge says. He gives the example of people fueling their cars or generators after a hurricane using credit cards, whose systems rely on connectivity. “We, as a culture, have become more dependent on connectivity,” Mudge tells CBN, adding that connectivity firms play an increasingly critical role in disaster relief efforts. More so than economics, the stakes include peoples’ lives, Mudge says. “[Connectivity] tends to be more about enabling the life-saving mission,” he says. Should someone need to go to the hospital during a hurricane or other disaster and the hospital lacks connectivity, it may be unable to access medical records and insurance information, Mudge says.  “Having that ability to connect and provide that service upfront really makes a big difference,” he says.  Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with Speedcast’s Mudge.

Ubiquitous connectivity demand is spurring competition among satellite operators and leading to increased network complexity and new capabilities like direct-to-device.  Accommodating rising data needs is complicated, Nir Barkan, chief executive at Jerusalem-based SatixFY, which develops communications technologies, tells Connectivity Business News during this episode of “The Dish” podcast. Canadian satellite operator Telesat on Nov. 4 announced it awarded SatixFy a $39 million contract to develop landing station basebands for Telesat’s planned Lightspeed low Earth orbit (LEO) megaconstellation. Barkan tells CBN that Telesat’s planned 198-satellite Lightspeed constellation is likely to require hundreds of landing station basebands, which receive signals from a constellation and process the data before rerouting it to the end-users on the ground. “The requirements of Telesat for Lightspeed are extremely complex,” Barkan says. “The Lightspeed system really pushes the limit of current technology involving numbers, transceivers and the deep duplex capacity it requires.” Barkan expects Telesat to be a “very strong player” in the LEO broadband market, which includes Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper. The emerging satellite direct-to-device (D2D) market is, in part, behind the move toward large constellations, he says, noting that connectivity will soon be available everywhere all the time.  While Telesat has no plans to enter the D2D market, SatixFy is in talks with other constellation operators that are, Barkan says. He said he expects more D2D customers in 2025, without offered specifics. “With more and more companies building networks to support [D2D], it will eventually expand broadband connectivity everywhere, This trend is becoming the new gold rush for the space industry,” he says. Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with SatisFy’s Barkan.  

The satellite industry is marked by innovation and understanding the regulatory environment is a plus for connectivity providers. “Many new technologies just don’t conform to existing regulations,” Katherine Gizinski, chief executive at Douglas, Isle of Mann-based spectrum consultancy firm River Advisers, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. River Advisers helps connectivity providers with innovative tech understand international spectrum regulations and views itself as enabling them to tap into lucrative markets. “Successfully navigating the regulation and market access considerations will determine the winners and losers in this new paradigm,” Gizinski says. “That’s how you unlock value. That’s how you access those markets.” For example, limited spectrum and market access could play a role in mergers and acquisitions among connectivity providers, particularly in emerging markets such as satellite direct-to-device.  “Spectrum is prime real estate. You can't build a beachfront hotel without a little bit of beach to build it on,” she says. But securing spectrum and regulatory approval for a new technology or service could take time, says Gizinski. While it’s sometimes assumed that regulations must anticipate new technologies entering a market, that’s not the case, Gizinski says. “Regulation is inherently backward-looking,” she says. “You don't want regulators proactively regulating something that doesn't yet exist or that they or the technologists themselves don't fully understand yet.” Gizinski says that the regulations in place for satellite operators and telecommunications providers don’t need to be thrown out but it’s important for regulators to have a sense of the “bigger picture” in the connectivity industry and develop mechanisms enabling them to be responsive to industry changes.  “We, as investors, as an industry, need to acknowledge the limitations of the existing frameworks and work within them to bring the regulations along with us,” she says. Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with Gizinski. 

As the constellations in low Earth orbit expand, the antennas that support these next-generation networks are becoming more compact. Satellites in lower orbits are closer to the user, which typically means they don’t need large, bulky antennas to deliver connectivity, Lukas Nystrom, chief technology officer at Karlstad, Sweden-based satcom terminal supplier Satcube, tells Connectivity Business News in the latest episode of “The Dish” podcast. Nystrom credits SpaceX for driving the market shift toward satellite networks in lower orbits and, ultimately, smaller antennas. “To get a critical mass of rocket launches, [SpaceX] needed to increase the demand for things to launch into orbit, and launching LEO satellites is a very good way of increasing the demand for rocket launchers,” Nystrom says. Satcube in August opened a new mass production facility to accommodate the growing demand for its 8-kilogram flat panel Ku band antennas. The company is focused on solving the efficiency problem associated with much of what’s on the market today, including electronically steered phased array antennas, Nystrom says. The semiconductor technology used in most phased array antennas lacks power efficiency, he says, adding that 90% of the energy from the silicon chips used to power these antennas just converts to heat instead of providing a radio signal to the satellite. “Instead of radiating toward the sky, you're effectively now just a heat radiator that you carry around in your bag.” The only way to protect the antenna from becoming overheated is to add a heat sink, which makes the antennas bulkier, Nystrom says. Meanwhile, Satcube advertises its portable terminals as power efficient and able to run on a battery or a power cord due to their small size.  Smaller equipment also means more return on investment for satellite operators, Nystrom says. “When you shrink the equipment that typically also brings cost reductions, so you can start to tailor to markets that previously did not have the funds to afford this kind of technologies,” he says. Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with Nystrom. To hear more from Lukas Nystrom, CTO at Satcube, on satellite market trends and the state of investment in commercial space, register for the free webinar “Investment in Connectivity: 2024 review and 2025 forecast” on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. ET.Register here for the webinar.  

Surging demand for ubiquitous connectivity in underserved locations and in mobility applications such as in-flight connectivity has sparked a market shift toward multiorbit and hybrid network technologies. The rise of constellations has transformed the connectivity industry in the past decade and sparked demand for new technologies, particularly in the mobility sector, Paul Gaske, chief operating officer at Germantown, Md.-based satcom provider Hughes Network Systems, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. “Obviously, [10 years ago] there were no low Earth orbit (LEO) technologies to speak of,” Gaske says. “Now you have LEO constellations, so that gives a whole new dimension that we can add.” An aircraft in motion requires the ubiquitous coverage of a LEO constellation but also depends on the high capacity provided by a large geostationary (GEO) satellite, he says. “If you think about an aircraft starting at a gate and then taking off and going up into its flight path and beyond, you have different situations around the airport on the ground and you need a tremendous amount of [connectivity],” Gaske tells CBN.  Once an aircraft is in the air, it shares satellite capacity with hundreds of other moving aircraft, he says. Hughes in July 2023 launched its Jupiter-3 GEO satellite, the largest commercial payload launched to date, Gaske says. Since service from the satellite was turned on in December 2023, Hughes has been able to deliver 100 megabit-per-second circuits to rural locations across the United States, Mexico and parts of South America, he tells CBN. “It’s more than double the capacity of what we already had,” he says. But the bus-sized satellite can go beyond providing rural broadband. For instance, Hughes will combine its Jupiter-3 capacity with LEO services in partnership with satellite operator Eutelsat-OneWeb to enable in-flight connectivity (IFC), Gaske says. Tune into this episode of “The Dish” with the Hughes COO to learn how the company plans to serve the broader customer. For more on the state of investment in commercial space, register for the free webinar “Investment in Connectivity: 2024 review and 2025 forecast” on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. ET. Register here for the webinar.  

More than 80% of the world’s goods are transported by ships using global navigation satellites to track their assets and reach their destinations, which means there’s a lot to lose if these satellites are attacked. The International Maritime Bureau estimates a global loss of $25 billion per year within the maritime industry due to piracy, which has been on the rise in the past few years, Robert Bills, president at satellite services company NAL Research, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. Maritime shipping companies rely on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services to keep track of cargo, especially their most expensive assets. But large, global networks delivering PNT and location data, such as GPS and GNSS, are increasingly vulnerable as they become more integrated in the world economy, Bills says. The major cargo shipping delays in recent years have been a result of the pandemic. However, compromised location data due to a GPS or GNSS network attack could cause a similar effect, he says. “The delays of shipping showing up from different places caused all sorts of ripple effects throughout the economy,” Bills says. “So, there's a major economic impact — beyond the safety impacts — that happens as well.” NAL Research recently upgraded its SkyLink Citadel anti-piracy maritime solution to include satellite PNT capabilities through satellite operator Iridium’s low Earth orbit constellation. The solution aims to back up GPS and GNSS networks in the event a signal is jammed or spoofed, Bills tells CBN.  GPS has been around for decades and has become interwoven in virtually every aspect of our lives; while it’s unlikely to be replaced, backup systems will be critical in the future, he says. Learn more in this episode of “The Dish.” 

As a new tropical disturbance looms in the Caribbean this week during one of the most active hurricane seasons on record, airplanes and satellites are helping improve tropical storm forecasting. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has counted 20 major weather and climate events in the United States so far this year, each costing about $1 billion in damages. Since NOAA began tracking severe weather events in 1980, damage from the 396 tracked events is approximately $2.8 trillion, according to the agency’s website. But critical weather data obtained by satellites or other means must be protected, particularly when traveling through a challenging environment such as a hurricane while being transmitted, Henrik Axelsson, chief executive at content delivery solutions provider KenCast, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. KenCast works on NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters program, which uses aircraft traveling through a storm to collect weather information in tandem with satellite data, Axelsson tells CBN. “It’s quite challenging, as we’re literally on an airplane flying through a hurricane down to the ground, and there’s a lot of signal interruption,” Axelsson says. For the program, NOAA’s weather monitoring aircraft are integrated with Norwalk, Conn.-based KenCast’s Fazzt Forward Error Correction (Fazzt FEC) digital delivery system, which is designed to protect mission-critical satellite and terrestrial data, even during network outages, Axelsson says. “This use case is almost a perfect poster child for our solution,” Axelsson says, adding that Fazzt took about 30 years to refine. Fazzt can be used for satellite and terrestrial data and for applications outside of weather monitoring such as automotive and maritime, but Earth observation has seen a pickup in demand, he says. “I think in the last five years, we’ve seen a shift with data centers providing connectivity solutions partnering [with] satellite companies,” Axelsson says. “It just provides a lower barrier to entry for a lot of people, when they have one entity they can work with to provide the satellite connectivity and compute [the data] at the same time.” 

A satellite network cyberattack could prove disastrous for the global economy, as numerous industries become increasingly reliant on satellite networks, such as GPS.The best way to prevent a cyberattack is to integrate flexible, upgradable cybersecurity systems at the design stage[MD1] of the network, according to Paul Kostek, principal systems engineer at aerospace software firm Air Direct Solutions[MD2] and senior member at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).Giving the example of AT&T[MD3] ’s July announcement that a hacker had stolen data from nearly all its customers, Kostek tells Connectivity Business News that AT&T not disclose the financial consequences of the hack. Damage control following a cyberattack can have an “enormous cost” compared with designing a secure network[MD4] from the start, he says in this episode of “The Dish” podcast.Satellite networks are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks [MD5] as terrestrial markets [CB6] become dependent on their capabilities, Kostek says. For instance, if GPS satellites were shut off or compromised, global navigation systems would be halted. “The cost can be pretty extraordinary,” Kostek says. “When you look at what's going on in the marketplace today, you've got new GPS satellites being launched that cost of billions of dollars.”More satellites equal more riskA July report by ESA estimates the number of objects in space to be 35,000 compared with approximately 30,000 in 2022.And as space becomes increasingly crowded[MD7] , cybersecurity is more critical than ever, Kostek tells CBN.“If you look at commercial space nowadays, which is exploding, you have people building payloads that are being launched that may have no cybersecurity,” Kostek says. Satellites that aren’t built to have cybersecurity can be hacked to cause a collision or damaged to the point at which they can no longer handle the space environment, resulting in an inadvertent collision, he says. [MD1]Link: https://connectivitybusiness.com/news/strategy-markets/next-gen-networks-need-secure-by-design-approach-says-comtechs-gizinski/ [MD2]A Google search shows a closed down air conditioning company with the same name with the same headquarters, but I verified this is a systems engineering/software company. [MD3]Link: https://connectivitybusiness.com/news/government-legal/att-asks-fcc-to-pause-on-spacex-t-mobile-satellite-to-cell-waiver/ [MD4]Link: https://connectivitybusiness.com/news/investments/alphabet-broadcom-spend-92b-on-network-security/ [MD5]https://connectivitybusiness.com/news/investments/spideroak-raises-16-4m-for-on-orbit-cybersecurity-testing/ [CB6]This is odd phrasing. Please reword [MD7]Link: https://connectivitybusiness.com/news/kessler-syndrome-could-render-low-earth-orbit-unusable-some-believe/

Space traffic management provider Neuraspace is looking to simplify safe space operations for satellite operators and keep them in the know on orbital risks. “You could say ignorance is bliss,” but satellite operators need awareness as space becomes increasingly crowded, Chiara Manfletti, chief executive at Coimbra, Portugal-based Neuraspace, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. Neuraspace this month announced a partnership with international science organization EISCAT Scientific Association, enabling Neuraspace to use EISCAT’s advanced radar, and ionospheric and atmospheric data to improve its solutions for decision-making in space. The company aims to “maximize the outcome of operations [and] minimize the operational effort that operators have to go through,” to protect their satellites, Manfletti tells CBN. The number of objects in space in 2024 has escalated to 35,000 compared with approximately 30,000 in 2022, and so has the risk of collisions in orbit, according to a July report by ESA. On the flip side, companies are more willing to learn the risks of space and take proactive measures to protect their assets, Manfletti says. “More and more companies are actually also investing in making sure that we can deal with these risks, so satellites aren’t just sitting ducks hoping nothing will happen to them,” Manfletti says.  Companies are seeing the value of maneuverability in space, so they’re more willing to invest in propulsion systems and space traffic management solutions, she says. Manfletti tells CBN that, while the exact cost of an in-orbit collision is variable and difficult to calculate, the potential economic implications warrant a proactive approach to space sustainability. “At the very worst, if we do nothing about it, the economic implications are catastrophic,” she says, adding that reportedly 20% of the European economy alone depends on space. Space sustainability has historically been viewed as an environmental issue and still is, but the economic dimension is increasingly significant, Manfletti says.  “The future is big and that's why I see [in-orbit services] playing a key role as a building block toward this future circular economy in space,” she says. Register now for the webinar “Launching forward: The state of the launch market and what it means for the future of the space industry,” on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 11 a.m. ET. Secure your spot here.