Azure Orbital Ground Station as Service extends life and reduces costs for satellite operators | Azure Blog and Updates

How can Microsoft empower satellite tv for pc operators to deal with their mission and allow them to proceed the operation of their satellites, with out making capital investments of their floor infrastructure?

To reply that query, Microsoft labored alongside the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and our associate Xplore, to show how the industrial cloud can present satellite tv for pc mission administration for NOAA’s legacy polar satellites (NOAA-18)—extending the mission life of those satellites whereas lowering the price of operation by Azure Orbital Floor Station as-a-Service (GSaaS).

Partnering with the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Xplore

The initiative was a part of a year-long cooperative analysis and growth settlement (CRADA) with NOAA, the place we labored collectively to find out the flexibility of the Azure Orbital platform to attach and downlink knowledge from NOAA satellites. NOAA additionally examined the flexibility of Microsoft Azure to adjust to specified safety controls in a fast and efficient method. Our cloud-based options carried out efficiently throughout all measures.

Companions are central to Microsoft’s method to house, they usually performed a key position on this mission. As a part of the CRADA, we leveraged our associate community to deliver collectively Azure Orbital with Xplore’s Main Tom mission management software program platform. This method enabled NOAA to transmit instructions to the NOAA-18 spacecraft and confirm the receipt of those instructions. This take a look at was carried out in real-time, and knowledge was flowing bi-directionally with the NOAA-18 satellite tv for pc.

Business know-how enabled the fast demonstration of those progressive capabilities. Xplore was in a position to transfer shortly to deliver capabilities of NOAA’s heritage house system structure to the Azure cloud by their Main Tom platform. This highlights the facility of Azure as a platform to deliver collectively Azure Orbital as the bottom station, Main Tom to offer the mission management software program for commanding and telemetry viewing, and the NOAA operators to watch the eventualities.

This profitable demonstration exhibits that the Azure Orbital GSaaS, and the associate community it brings collectively, permits sustainable outcomes for satellite tv for pc operators. Our work with NOAA is just the start of the journey. We look ahead to partnering with extra satellite tv for pc operators to assist them scale back their infrastructure administration prices, decrease latency, enhance capability and resiliency, and empower their missions by the facility of Azure Orbital GSaaS and the Azure cloud.

Be taught extra about Azure Orbital and Azure Area

To study extra about Azure Orbital GSaaS, go to our product web page, or check out the session with Microsoft Mechanics, which works into extra element on how we join house satellites world wide and convey earth observational knowledge into Azure for analytics through Microsoft and associate floor stations. We show the way it works and the way it suits into Microsoft’s technique with Azure Area to deliver cloud connectivity in all places on earth and to create space satellite tv for pc knowledge accessible for on a regular basis use instances.

Extra broadly, Azure Area marks the convergence between international satellite tv for pc constellations and the cloud. As the 2 be a part of collectively, our goal is to deliver cloud connectivity to even probably the most distant corners of the earth, connect with satellites, and harness the huge quantity of information collected from house. This may also help clear up each long-term trending points affecting the earth like local weather change, or short-term real-time points comparable to related agriculture, monitoring and controlling wildfires, or figuring out provide chain bottlenecks.

Be taught extra about Azure Area as we speak.