With satellite launches predicted to increase in the coming decade, including an expanding smallsat market, the demand for ground station as-a-service (GSaaS) is also on the rise.

Constellations recently spoke with Brad Bode, CTO of ATLAS Space Operations, about the state of the market for GSaaS providers. He answered questions about what satellite operators can expect when working with a GSaaS provider, the race to get data to the ground faster, and how SpaceX’s Starshield will influence the EO market. Here are some of the main takeaways from the discussion.

Takeaway: Satellite operators should begin working with a ground station service well before launch.

Satellite operators should begin working with a ground station service long before launch, said Bode. The ground station can “alter your modeling design,” he said, resulting in significant changes to the entire satellite system. “From a CFO’s perspective, it can alter the business model that says whether or not you’ll be profitable, as well as when you’ll be profitable,” he said.

Working with a ground station operator in the beginning stages of satellite development can help a satellite operator know how much they should charge for the end product. Several different factors could change how much a ground station operator charges for services, such as using antennas in difficult locations in order to reduce latency for the end user. “You need to start designing those solutions in early, running your predictions about how much you’ll need and where you’ll need your ground system,” said Bode.

Takeaway: To remain competitive, GSaaS providers must have good product and low latency.

The first thing that GSaaS companies must maintain is good product that, according to Bode, should solve a problem for a government or multinational corporation, and ideally offer some type of data to an existing backlog of customers. Competitive GSaaS companies must also offer low latency, which narrows delay times and gets data down from the satellite and into the hands of the end user faster. Atlas Space, for example, works with each satellite operator to find the right mix of ground stations that will reduce overall latency.

Ground service companies are also often forced to deal with issues of interoperability. “Quite often you’ll get a new customer where our hardware doesn’t support the mod-cod, modulation, demodulation, the different schemes,” he said. “In which case you have to go back to the modem or front-end processer (FEP) provider and ask them to update it, and that can take time.”

One more reason for satellite operators to seek out a ground service operator early, Bode explained.

Takeaway: The GSaaS market isn’t consolidating anytime soon.

“I think there is very clearly some reshaping,” Bode said, when asked about the state of the GSaaS industry, “but there hasn’t been consolidation yet.” There is still room for consolidation, especially with companies like “the 1,000 pound gorilla of KSAT,” noted Bode, which can afford economies of scale and dominates in the commercial marketplace.

“I do think some consolidation will happen, but I think it will be that companies will own antennas,” said Bode. “There will be large infrastructure firms that own antennas, and the companies will just be resellers of antennas that they don’t own.” But overall, change in the industry is not currently poised to lead to large-scale consolidation.

After all, different competitors—KSAT, Leaf Space, Atlas Space, RBC Signals, Infosteller, even SSC in the lunar arena—all focus on different aspects of ground service and appeal to different types of customers. SSC, for example, is primarily focused on the cislunar space, while Atlas Space differentiates itself by offering standard ground service with an added software layer that sits on top of the existing infrastructure.

Takeaway: Starshield could influence the state of the EO market—but won’t take it over entirely.

While consolidation might not be the next step for the GSaaS market, SpaceX’s Starshield could influence the shape of the EO market. “It’s too early to say,” said Bode, “but I do think it will have an impact on the EO market. But there are so many different ways to observe the Earth, and data to collect, that I can’t see them ruling them all.”

Besides, the government continues to offer contracts to a variety of providers. “We can see that with launch companies… [the government] wants competition in the marketplace, so they award contracts to other providers,” said Bode. “It’s similar in the EO marketplace, in the sense that the government’s always going to buy data from other providers.”

Bode predicted that the future of the market will be with whoever can get data to the ground faster. “It will focus the marketplace on what [it] actually needs data-wise,” Bode said. “Insights and real, important actionable intelligence can come from fusing different data sets.” Hopefully, this will mean more honest business models and less pie-in-the-sky type ideas, but it will also mean that ground service companies will “take a look at how they can scale, and bring some new data to market,” said Bode.

To learn more about GSaaS applications, the process of integrating a satellite system with a ground system and the future of GSaaS, listen to the full episode.

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