The ground station brings a new and sought-after capability to Peterborough and South Australia, offering a highly capable ground station service and R&D test bed for organisations needing to test concepts and ideas in the real environment, according to general manager of communication, information and space at Nova IGS Network, Nick Pengelly.
"With South Australia fast-becoming known as Australia’s space hub following the establishment of the Australian Space Agency headquarters at Lot Fourteen, and with the announcement of the SmartSat CRC, Peterborough was the ideal location for the founding node of our ground station network," Pengelly said.
Defence SA has thrown its support behind the initiative designed to have the capacity to support the SA government and ASA activity out of Lot Fourteen, as well as catering for the data download needs of the ever-increasing number of satellites and constellations.
Pengelly added, "We believe the IGS network will become a critical element of Australia’s space industry eco-system and we are delighted to be working closely with Peterborough Council CEO Peter McGuinness to have the opportunity to contribute to the generation of innovation and growth in the district."
Nova IGS Network has recently completed construction works for initial customers on the site. The network has also commenced upgrading the fibre connection to the Peterborough site, which will achieve backhaul download capacity in excess of 10GBps.
Tailored to meet the needs of current and future low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth orbit (MEO) small satellite missions, the Nova IGS Network currently offers ACMA approved spectrum licenses for the conduct of UHF, S-band and X-band operations.
Nova IGS Network is an Australian owned company, boasting Australia’s pre-eminent SATCOM capability with a wealth of experience and knowledge.
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