SpaceX’s Transporter-10 launch was an exciting day across the space industry. The world watched and waited, cheering as spacecraft operators supported the variety of missions onboard. What the world does not often see, beneath the stars and below that glowing horizon where the contrails began, is the role that the ground segment plays in the success of these missions, a role that the ATLAS Space Operations team understands very well.

ATLAS’ approach to mission assurance is multifaceted, involving preparations leading up to launch and responsiveness after it. They prepare customer missions for success through industry-leading integration support and pre-launch RF compatibility testing with the ATLAS-in-a-box test set. Once the integration is complete, ATLAS delivers a highly adaptable network architecture powered by machine-to-machine interfaces and their secure, cloud-based Freedom Software. The end result is a unique agility that ATLAS customers are able to leverage. With the Transporter-10 launch of YAM-6, Loft Orbital did just that.

During a review of their YAM-6 ground solution, the Loft team identified an opportunity to expand UHF coverage with an ATLAS antenna offering visibility shortly after spacecraft separation. Recognizing ATLAS’ responsive capability, Loft submitted a request to add UHF downlink service for their scheduled launch. Less than two hours after the request was fielded by ATLAS Project Manager Amy Button-Denby, ATLAS’ work was finished and their Freedom Federated Network was fully configured to support YAM-6.

“Agility is one of ATLAS Space Operations’ strengths as a ground service provider,” Button-Denby said regarding the day’s events, “so the ATLAS team is delighted that we could set up support for a new node in Loft Orbital’s constellation within a couple of hours.”

Shortly after liftoff, Loft successfully contacted YAM-6 over the ATLAS network, receiving their UHF beacon as expected.

“ATLAS is a great partner in supporting Loft’s goals to provide fast, simple, and reliable access to space,” said Etienne Vincent, Software Architect in the Ground Products team. “With their simple API interface and support from the ATLAS team, we’re able to increase the reliability of our space infrastructure for our customers.”

YAM-6 is the first virtual mission-enabled satellite capable of running customer-developed software applications that leverage onboard connectivity, compute, and sensing resources. ATLAS credits their Ground Software as a Service ground segment model and the responsive collaboration of the Loft team with making the execution of such a time-sensitive request possible.

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