Astranis Aims to Breathe New Life into GEO

On December 29, 2024, a new breed of geostationary satellites took flight – powered into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. From One to Many, the first Astranis Block 2 mission, is the first operational deployment of the California based company’s MicroGEO fleet, with ultimate goal of providing connectivity across the globe. These small satellites, travelling together on a specially made spacecraft adapter, represent a clever revolution in the miniaturization of data mobility, and the ability to reach previously untapped areas with high throughput communications. 

Astranis is a private satellite communications company founded in 2015 by John Gedmark and Ryan Kittleson. The company focuses on building and operating small geostationary satellites to provide broadband internet access to underserved and remote areas. Their goal is to deliver affordable, high-speed internet by deploying small, high-throughput satellites that are easier to manufacture and launch than traditional, larger satellites. Astranis made headlines with the successful launch of its first satellite, Arcturus, in 2021 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Arcturus was designed to provide internet services to Alaska and other regions with limited connectivity, as a preliminary pathfinder for this smaller reduced complexity hardware. This launch, while successful, ultimately saw the vehicle unable to complete a longer duration mission, with a fault developing onboard the spacecraft – but paved the way for future operational missions with a more thoroughly refined design. 

Astranis is unique in the space ecosystem, designing their spacecraft to be compact and compatible with a variety of launch vehicles to enable rapid and cost effective access to space. The company is positioning itself as a competitor to traditional satellite providers by offering more agile, cost-effective alternatives to traditional large-scale geostationary satellites. Their latest mission, the debut of the Block 2 platform, consisted of four MicroGEO satellites built by the company in California. One satellite will provide the Philippines with broadband access via Orbits Corp, two satellites will provide internet connectivity services to aircraft and cruise ships through Anuvu, and a final satellite called Utilitysat will be reserved for Astranis for internal use, potentially demonstrating new technologies. Astranis has also been awarded a development contract for R-GPS, a new, resilient satellite program designed to bolster the existing GPS network in the face of growing space adversaries. 

Astranis’s approach combines smaller satellites with advanced technology and a flexible business model, aiming to address connectivity gaps around the world, particularly in hard-to-reach areas. The company emphasizes that their small, MicroGEO platform enables compatibility and affordability for all users, a drastic shift from the large monolithic sats which have existed as a standard of the industry. This has been the broader reach of the geostationary communications industry in recent years, which has branched from the traditional model of large monolithic satellites to proliferated constellations, enabling a much more dynamic ecosystem in the GEO regime and beyond. This is exemplified by the proliferation of much smaller, more responsive geostationary satellites – a far cry from the 10-12 ton vehicles lofted for much of the 20th and 21st century.  

Geostationary orbit is not the only regime where the communications industry is flourishing. With satellite miniaturization continuing, new constellation growth in the medium-earth-orbit ecosystem has seen a steady uptick. Most recently, Falcon 9 launched the seventh and eighth O3b mPOWER satellites into a medium-Earth orbit, building on a constellation. The satellites are the second generation of high-throughput and low-latency internet satellites built by SES, allowing the company to allocate bandwidth and power dynamically to customers as required. Boeing built the two satellites in El Segundo, California, and shipped them to the Cape in November.

Each satellite features newly redesigned power modules that address the previous electrical issues experienced by the first six O3b mPOWER satellites. These electrical issues significantly impaired the performance of the satellites and led to SES extending their contract with Boeing by two satellites, bringing the finished constellation to 13 total satellites. Once fully operational, the constellation will use the first six impaired satellites as spares and commit to fully operating the latter seven satellites. SES expects the final pair of O3b mPOWER satellites to be launched in 2026.

The communications market, over the last decade, has seen radical change – all with the intention of broadening access to the internet and technology. The launch of Astranis Block 2 “From One to Many” serves as a fundamental shift in the way the GEO regime is accessed, ultimately opening the region up to new players. This functions as a democratizing access point for space, offering the ability to reach out and connect via assets hanging high overhead. Through companies like Astranis, Starlink, Oneweb, SES and more, access to information is only growing. 

Edited by Beverly Casillas