Almagest Space Corporation, a US-based company developing a global low earth orbit (LEO) highly-secure data relay constellation for a wide range of Government and commercial applications, announced the successful launch and deployment of ELEVATION-1, a demonstration satellite carrying the world’s first E-band communications payload with the foundational technology for Almagest to develop innovative high performance bulk data solutions.

ELEVATION-1 was launched, with support from Almagest’s launch partner D-Orbit S.p.A., on January 14th as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission from Vandenberg Space Base. The spacecraft was manufactured by XDLINX Space Labs in India, is powered by Antaris’ Cloud Platform and SatOS, and was assembled, integrated, and tested by Ananth Technologies. The E-band payload was built by XDLINX using key components and subsystems from Filtronic, Flann, and IQ Wireless. ELEVATION-1 was delivered within 9- months of kick-off, an extraordinary achievement for such a challenging mission.

ELEVATION-1 represents a major advancement in satellite communication capabilities. The spacecraft will test the world’s first miniaturized space-grade E-band communication payload, and measurement and other transmission data will be used to develop advanced propagation models for Almagest’s global high-speed and ultra-high throughput (UHTS) LEO constellation. Almagest plans to deploy its constellation in phases, commencing in 2026- 2027 with its TWINSTAR Mission, consisting of two FSO-connected satellites providing two- way high-throughput point-to-point services for latency tolerant applications, and gradually expanding to a network of over 100 satellites by 2030 as demand for these services increases.

E-Band Potential to Revolutionize Satellite Communications

The untapped lower (71-76 GHz) and upper (81-86 GHz) E-Band spectrum can be harnessed to meet the ever-growing data traffic requirements of commercial UHTS and other satcom systems for secured high-capacity channels. The 10 GHz of available E-band spectrum is far greater than available spectrum in congested legacy lower frequencies like S-band, Ku-band, and Ka-band. E-band solutions will greatly enhance space-based communication capabilities by delivering unprecedented fiber optic-like speeds of up to 100 Gbps, enabling secure high-system capacity networks and high data throughput applications. Almagest has a senior multi-orbital global ITU filing in E-band.

Raghu Das, Almagest’s CEO and Co-Founder, stated, “Almagest is thrilled to announce the successful launch of ELEVATION-1 on the Transporter-12 mission. Our focus now is on demonstrating the E-band payload’s space-to-earth transmission capabilities, which will form the foundation for our quantum key distribution (QKD)-enabled ‘zero trust’ high- capacity UHTS network. This network will deliver speeds complementing fiber-optic systems.”

He continued, “We are committed to working with technology and strategic partners including terrestrial wireless carriers and independent global satellite network operators to provide cutting-edge, global space/earth and in-space bulk data relay services. These services will cater to government and commercial applications requiring ultra-high capacity and speed.”

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