Will Provide Telemetry, Commanding, And Data Support
Atlas Space Operations, Inc., a company that provides satellite communications as a service through an innovative software-driven, high data flow global antenna network, announced today that BlackSky has selected Atlas to provide telemetry, commanding, and data support for its high-revisit, Earth imaging constellation of satellites. Atlas will be offering this support via new ground station sites in Guam and Japan to further maximize the performance of the BlackSky constellation.
A division of Spaceflight Industries, BlackSky is a leading geospatial monitoring and alerting service that helps organizations observe and understand global events by integrating a diverse set of sensors and data, including satellite images. The company is launching its first four satellites (of a planned constellation of 60) in the next year. The constellation will provide 1-meter resolution color imagery with frequent revisit rates of 95 percent of the Earth’s population.
“We’ve been in dialog with Atlas since their founding, and are extremely pleased to sign on with them for the communications support of our constellation,” said Nick Merski, vice president of space operations at Spaceflight Industries. “Key to our decision to expand our hybrid model of ground stations was the ease of integration, network efficiency, and remarkable customer service Atlas provides.” BlackSky, which utilizes two other ground stations, has plans to expand its network to ten stations around the world.
The Atlas ground network consists of 17 operational and planned antennas globally employing their proprietary FreedomTM Software Platform. FreedomTM allows for seamless customer integration into the network, while optimizing all mission critical components and providing automated pass scheduling. This approach makes it easier, and more affordable for both commercial and U.S. civil spacecraft to communicate with their satellites by reducing their capital expenditures at every ground entry point.
“BlackSky is a significant player in the satellite industry,” said Sean McDaniel, CEO of Atlas. “The company’s work in the geospatial intelligence segment and democratizing data is something that we stand behind. As with all our customers, Atlas is committed to ensuring their data is secure and well cared for. We’re honored the BlackSky team chose Atlas to support their constellation, and are committed to moving our partnership forward.”
The Atlas ground network currently supports VHF, UHF, S and X-band RF communications and is actively developing its higher bands, to include optical communications.
(Source: Atlas Space Operations news release)
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