BREMEN, Germany — Swedish Space Corp. has unveiled its SSC Go, a new ground station service designed to offer streamlined support for small satellite and constellation operators. The announcement was made at Space Tech Expo Europe on November 18. The SSC Go service utilizes a dedicated network of 3.7-meter antennas across five global sites, providing S- and X-band communications, with Ka-band capabilities planned for next year.
According to the company, this new offering differs from SSC’s existing ground station services, which employ larger antennas. “We’ve very much been addressing more of a premium market with those services,” stated Nick Priborsky, president of SSC’s Connect ground segment division.
SSC Go is positioned to compete with similar services like Kongsberg Satellite Services’ KSATlite and Leaf Space. The focus is on delivering a streamlined and simplified service tailored for smaller satellite customers who, according to company officials, don’t require the “white glove” support associated with SSC’s traditional offerings. “Onboarding will be probably a little bit easier,” Priborsky said.
The service will also feature machine-to-machine interfaces to automate pass scheduling and facilitate the transfer of downlinked data to cloud computing services. “We just see the demand out there, and it’s a market segment that so far we’ve not been able to address,” he said. “Now we have that possibility to address that market as well.”
Priborsky anticipates that SSC Go will distinguish itself from competitors through certain technical advantages, such as dual-polarization X-band downlinks, which can double data rates for compatible satellites. “Otherwise, we really do hope that, as we’re not the market leader, we can offer a very competitive price as well.”
Redundancy is also highlighted as a key benefit. “There’s some value from a risk management perspective not to take passes from just a single provider,” he said. “You never quite know nowadays: sea cables and terrestrial network communications can be damaged and brought down.”
SSC Go will initially operate with five ground stations, with four strategically located at high latitudes for sun-synchronous orbit satellites: Kiruna, Sweden; North Pole, Alaska; Inuvik, Canada; and Punta Arenas, Chile. A fifth station is situated in Western Australia, appealing to customers seeking rapid data downlink after passes over East Asia.
The company is open to expanding SSC Go to other ground stations within its network based on customer demand, according to Priborsky. He did not specify the number of antennas at each station, but assured that, “There’s a lot of capacity that will be available… We’re not starting just with a couple of antennas here and there. We do have some serious capacity we can start off with.”