As space becomes increasingly crowded and space missions become more ambitious, the ability to track an asset in orbit is critical.

Orbit determination, defined as the estimation of an object’s orbit in space, enables an operator to ensure its satellite has the orbital accuracy to perform its mission, James Woodburn, fellow and chief orbital scientist at Ansys Government Initiatives, the national security division of software company Ansys, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast.

Orbital accuracy maximizes a satellite operator’s return on investment, he says.

Software-defined satellites

Woodburn is joined on the podcast by Jim Wertz, adjunct professor of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California and president of aerospace company Microcosm.

“Orbit determination is a bear of a problem for spacecraft,” due to drastic changes in atmospheric density in orbit, Wertz says. The ability to reconfigure a satellite through software in response to atmospheric changes can preserve a mission, he says.

Woodburn and Wertz expect an uptake in lunar missions in 2025, despite NASA’s recent announcement that it will be delaying its Artemis program.

“The idea of putting people back on the surface of the moon, I think, is extremely exciting,” Woodburn says. “And I think the best way for us to prepare for this is through the types of [orbit] analysis that we're capable of doing now.”

Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with Woodburn and Wertz.

For the over 5.2 million people who lost cellular service with hurricanes Helene and Milton, satellite connectivity provided a lifeline as Speedcast deployed more than 200 Starlink kits to crisis response teams in Florida and North Carolina.

The connectivity provider accomplished this through a partnership with SpaceX, Will Mudge, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Houston-based Speedcast, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast.

The economic cost of hurricanes includes loss of connectivity, Mudge says. The 2024 hurricane season cost the U.S. $500 billion in damages, according to an estimate by meteorology company AccuWeather in a report published Dec. 2. And extreme weather events have cost the global economy $2 trillion over the past decade, according to a November report by the International Chamber of Commerce.

People rely on connectivity for applications they may not be aware of, Mudge says. He gives the example of people fueling their cars or generators after a hurricane using credit cards, whose systems rely on connectivity.

“We, as a culture, have become more dependent on connectivity,” Mudge tells CBN, adding that connectivity firms play an increasingly critical role in disaster relief efforts.

More so than economics, the stakes include peoples’ lives, Mudge says.

“[Connectivity] tends to be more about enabling the life-saving mission,” he says.

Should someone need to go to the hospital during a hurricane or other disaster and the hospital lacks connectivity, it may be unable to access medical records and insurance information, Mudge says.

“Having that ability to connect and provide that service upfront really makes a big difference,” he says.

Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with Speedcast’s Mudge.

Ubiquitous connectivity demand is spurring competition among satellite operators and leading to increased network complexity and new capabilities like direct-to-device.

Accommodating rising data needs is complicated, Nir Barkan, chief executive at Jerusalem-based SatixFY, which develops communications technologies, tells Connectivity Business News during this episode of “The Dish” podcast.

Canadian satellite operator Telesat on Nov. 4 announced it awarded SatixFy a $39 million contract to develop landing station basebands for Telesat’s planned Lightspeed low Earth orbit (LEO) megaconstellation.

Barkan tells CBN that Telesat’s planned 198-satellite Lightspeed constellation is likely to require hundreds of landing station basebands, which receive signals from a constellation and process the data before rerouting it to the end-users on the ground.

“The requirements of Telesat for Lightspeed are extremely complex,” Barkan says. “The Lightspeed system really pushes the limit of current technology involving numbers, transceivers and the deep duplex capacity it requires.”

Barkan expects Telesat to be a “very strong player” in the LEO broadband market, which includes Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper.

The emerging satellite direct-to-device (D2D) market is, in part, behind the move toward large constellations, he says, noting that connectivity will soon be available everywhere all the time.

While Telesat has no plans to enter the D2D market, SatixFy is in talks with other constellation operators that are, Barkan says. He said he expects more D2D customers in 2025, without offered specifics.

“With more and more companies building networks to support [D2D], it will eventually expand broadband connectivity everywhere, This trend is becoming the new gold rush for the space industry,” he says.

Tune into this episode of “The Dish” to hear the full conversation with SatisFy’s Barkan.