Kratos' OpenSpace Satellite Ground System Draws Global Interest

Kratos' OpenSpace Satellite Ground System Draws Global Interest

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a technology company in defense, national security, and global markets, continues to garner deep interest for its pioneering OpenSpace dynamic satellite ground system from defense agencies and commercial network operators globally. Recently, at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, the company kicked off a demonstration tour showing how virtual, orchestrated solutions available today can support multiple missions and customers with greater power, flexibility, and affordability than today’s purpose-built, hardware-based systems.

The limits of traditional, hardware-based systems are nowhere more apparent than when trying to support multiple missions or services simultaneously—a particularly acute need for defense and disaster recovery efforts. The greatest problem is that these systems use proprietary architectures and single-purpose components that force both a proliferation of equipment and stovepiped network operations. For example, to support even just two missions of a different type simultaneously, it usually requires two unique terminals, each including a specific antenna, modem, and variety of network appliances, often supported by two hubs. Complex or sensitive missions might require additional specialized hardware components as well. If additional software applications are required, such as firewalls or interference mitigation, one or more separate computers will be needed. Increase to three or more missions, and the number of devices grows.

In contrast, by replacing purpose-built hardware with software-defined virtual functions, Kratos’ OpenSpace Platform puts all these mission requirements into one off-the-shelf COTS OpenEdge appliance. Instead of multiple hardware modems, for example, virtually any number of software modems can be enabled on a single terminal, each configured specifically for a unique mission. When that mission or service is completed, those same virtual modems can be repurposed on-the-fly, remotely, to support new missions. In the demonstration delivered at the Space Symposium, Kratos showed how two very different types of missions could be supported at the same time in one place, directly in the hands of warfighters in the field: commercial SATCOM service through a steerable flat panel antenna and Earth observation and weather data provided through a U.S. government GOES satellite.

“Dozens of attendees watched the live demo over the course of the Space Symposium,” observed Phil Carrai, President of Kratos’ Space, Training, and Cybersecurity Division. “It was remarkable to hear uniformed service members of all ranks and from many nations comment upon their need for this capability, as well as how smoothly the service worked.”

Kratos’ OpenSpace is the first and only commercially available virtual and orchestrated satellite ground system. Based upon the same software-defined network architecture principles as the systems used in global terrestrial and cellular networks, OpenSpace enables satellite operators to keep up with the increasingly dynamic nature of modern satellites, the proliferation of LEO constellations, and the evolving software-based global communications infrastructure that satellites feed. Euroconsult, a leading global research firm focused on the satellite industry, predicts that satellite demand will quadruple over the next decade. And, according to Kari Bingen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, over the last two years, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has received applications for over 64,000 new satellites, compared to the 6,800 functioning satellites in orbit as of November 2022.

These trends, plus the tremendous amount of innovation and technological disruption occurring in the space industry, are making multi-mission support such a keen interest today. Old-school hardware ground systems simply cannot keep pace with evolving needs, such as repurposing network infrastructure in seconds rather than days, supporting satellites in multiple orbits, and dynamically supporting multiple missions that have vastly different operational and technological requirements. Simply adding more hardware boxes to the stack won’t do the job.

“OpenSpace, including the OpenEdge product line, is faster and more flexible just by virtue of being cloud-native software,” commented Kevin Tobias, Director of Product Management for Edge Solutions at Kratos. “As mission diversity expands and more satellites are employed by multiple operators to deliver a single service or to support interdependent missions, only software-based network systems will be able to move fast enough, and only systems like OpenSpace that meet open industry standards will provide the needed interoperability that frees operators from vendor lock-in.”

The Space Symposium was the first stop for Kratos’ multi-mission demonstration tour, which will continue at other events and in additional locations to be announced. 

Click here for more information about Kratos’ OpenSpace dynamic ground platform

Publisher: SatNow
Tags:-  SatelliteLEOGround

GNSS Constellations - A list of all GNSS satellites by constellations

beidou

Satellite NameOrbit Date
BeiDou-3 G4Geostationary Orbit (GEO)17 May, 2023
BeiDou-3 G2Geostationary Orbit (GEO)09 Mar, 2020
Compass-IGSO7Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)09 Feb, 2020
BeiDou-3 M19Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)16 Dec, 2019
BeiDou-3 M20Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)16 Dec, 2019
BeiDou-3 M21Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)23 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 M22Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)23 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 I3Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)04 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 M23Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)22 Sep, 2019
BeiDou-3 M24Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)22 Sep, 2019

galileo

Satellite NameOrbit Date
GSAT0223MEO - Near-Circular05 Dec, 2021
GSAT0224MEO - Near-Circular05 Dec, 2021
GSAT0219MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0220MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0221MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0222MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0215MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0216MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0217MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0218MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017

glonass

Satellite NameOrbit Date
Kosmos 2569--07 Aug, 2023
Kosmos 2564--28 Nov, 2022
Kosmos 2559--10 Oct, 2022
Kosmos 2557--07 Jul, 2022
Kosmos 2547--25 Oct, 2020
Kosmos 2545--16 Mar, 2020
Kosmos 2544--11 Dec, 2019
Kosmos 2534--27 May, 2019
Kosmos 2529--03 Nov, 2018
Kosmos 2527--16 Jun, 2018

gps

Satellite NameOrbit Date
Navstar 82Medium Earth Orbit19 Jan, 2023
Navstar 81Medium Earth Orbit17 Jun, 2021
Navstar 78Medium Earth Orbit22 Aug, 2019
Navstar 77Medium Earth Orbit23 Dec, 2018
Navstar 76Medium Earth Orbit05 Feb, 2016
Navstar 75Medium Earth Orbit31 Oct, 2015
Navstar 74Medium Earth Orbit15 Jul, 2015
Navstar 73Medium Earth Orbit25 Mar, 2015
Navstar 72Medium Earth Orbit29 Oct, 2014
Navstar 71Medium Earth Orbit02 Aug, 2014

irnss

Satellite NameOrbit Date
NVS-01Geostationary Orbit (GEO)29 May, 2023
IRNSS-1IInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)12 Apr, 2018
IRNSS-1HSub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub-GTO)31 Aug, 2017
IRNSS-1GGeostationary Orbit (GEO)28 Apr, 2016
IRNSS-1FGeostationary Orbit (GEO)10 Mar, 2016
IRNSS-1EGeosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)20 Jan, 2016
IRNSS-1DInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)28 Mar, 2015
IRNSS-1CGeostationary Orbit (GEO)16 Oct, 2014
IRNSS-1BInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)04 Apr, 2014
IRNSS-1AInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)01 Jul, 2013