Viasat collaborates with Arctic Space Technologies for ground station in Sweden
Viasat opens a Real-Time Earth (RTE) facility in Sweden in collaboration with Arctic Space Technologies to add polar capabilities to its ground-station-as-a-service (GSaaS) network. Arctic Space Technologies, which offers secure satellite data management services, has agreed to establish and host Viasat’s RTE facility in Öjebyn, Sweden. The plant is expected to be operational in April.
Viasat said that the high latitude RTE site is located in an important geographical location for satellites flying in Sun-Synchronous Orbits (SSO), giving these customer satellites a chance to connect to the ground station up to nine times a day. The site will host four Viasat full-motion 7.3-meter S / X / Ka band antennas and associated infrastructure. It will also be co-located with an Arctic Space Technologies data center for improved edge computing capabilities.
“Our relationship with Arctic Space Technologies plays an integral role in the expansion of our global RTE footprint and our ability to provide critical coverage in critical polar geography,” said John Williams, Vice President of Real-Time Earth at Viasat. “The new Swedish site will give our RTE commercial and government customers virtual access to their own 7.3 m S / X / Ka-band antenna system – on an ideal polar latitude – with secure backhaul communication and software-defined radios configured specifically for each satellite pass. “
This will be Viasat’s first high-latitude RTE facility, and the sixth global site in the GSaaS network, a fully managed network that can serve satellites in the S, X and Ka bands. Viasat recently opened its first RTE in Africa, in Ghana.