Ground infrastructure lagged because the industry split the work

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 2:49

   there such a backlog? Like it was pretty obvious how much satellites were going to get built out so why didn't the U.S. build out ground stations for this? I guess it depends on the customer segment. So for a government customer segment, they tend to procure their spacecraft and their ground systems separately. So space systems were the major focus for a long time, and ground segment was kind of just the afterthought. People think about what's the thing that you're putting up in space, and for a number of programs, the ground was just not really contemplated, and so that they started running into issues for that and they were like oh man we need to actually account for the ground in our build out so that we can serve that capacity and then on the on the commercial operator side it really is more of like a supply chain issue where you have a bunch of

2. 3:38

   different suppliers and then the the actual operators of those ground sites and then ultimately the the software that's stitched on top of that and for each of those parts of the value chain it was just really challenging based on that structure to be able to be responsive to increased spacecraft demand. So as a lot of the operators are looking at. At launching new constellations, there's this moment of turnover where you have legacy operators who have their assets that are up in space right now.

3. 4:10

   And they're thinking about, OK, what does our next generation look like so that we can be a part of this new wave of space? You have a whole wave of sovereign operators that are increasing their spacecraft manufacturing. So you have a lot of the bus companies that are serving that. And so then the ground operations needs to respond in kind, but that value chain is just not really set up to be responsive.

4. 4:30

   And so for us, what we're doing is we're looking across that whole value chain and trying to accomplish it all within one company so that we can actually be responsive to that demand, do it at a better cost, make it more flexible, and just generally modernize. So how are you doing full stack ground support? it? It's a lot of disciplines that you tie into one company. So we cover everything from antenna development. We cover a lot of electrical work, a lot of digital signal processing, all within the hardware that we build. And then we have a whole sites team. So we actually think about how we manufacture and deploy those antennas. And that incorporates all the way back to the original design principles of what we build? How can we make things that fit in small form factors and that can go out and be shipped to any part of the world? And they have to basically construct

5. 5:27

   really simple versions of sites. So that's a whole different set of discipline. You have to think about how do you operate in different countries? So if you're landing a site in Japan or in Argentina or Iceland, all those wildly different contexts, how can you make sure that that service is like legally operating and also technically able to function in those regions. So there's all those disciplines. And then on top of that, you need to have the software that can tie that all together, both from a user interface perspective, networking, making the hardware work. So it's a lot of different disciplines that have to come together to make that possible. I think we really focused on top-of-the-line talent across all of those so that we can execute really effectively and orchestrate it all together, right? Because if any one of those pieces doesn't fall in line,

6. 6:21

   then it impacts the overall offering. So you have five sites now in 2026. What is it like getting those sites built out and what kind of regulations do you have to go through? Yeah, so like putting together a site. Basically, you have to think about just the base infrastructure that you need. So connecting the space, you need to have fiber. That means you need to be able to network back through Earth. You need to have power. So how can you actually turn on the devices that you have at site? And then you need to have a plot of land to put things. So we've tried to strip it down to basically just those three things. And so we tend to co-locate with optimizing for places that already have those things readily available. So data centers, for example, that's a spot that's really great for co-location because they already have that infrastructure in place. And they also

7. 7:15

   have smart hands, knowledgeable people on site that can fix things up. So that's like the first layer of site sourcing is can you check all three of those boxes? Beyond that, you have to think about what parts of the world do you want to serve for your customer base? And so for our customer base, they need to account for kind of global coverage to make sure that their spacecraft can operate, right? So like a satellite, it's moving around the earth if it's in, you know, in orbit lower than geostationary orbit. And so you need to make sure that that spacecraft can always be in contact. It's turned on, it's healthy, it's operating. And then you need to make sure that it can stream data. So where are the users? Where are the customers that you want to make contact with.

8. 8:00

   If you're serving customers in the UK, you want to have a location in the UK that you can make contact with. So that's really like the triangulation of locations. And then the layer on top of that is like, is it a region where you're going to be able to work with the local government? Fortunately for us, the licensing has been relatively easy to work with in the different regions that we focused on because most countries are open for business.

9. 8:27

   You know, they want to have more space business. And so, yeah, once you have the licensing checked off, you have the site scoped, you know where your customers are, you've got your ground site.