[ad_1]
The startup’s co-founders, from left: Chief Technology Officer Griffin Cleverly, CEO Bridgit Mendler and Head of Software Shaurya Luthra.
Northwood Space
Northwood Space, the startup led by former TV star and singer Bridgit Mendler, passed its first major development test last week by connecting with Planet Laboratories imaging satellites in orbit.
“We’re building this global network to send data to satellites, built on phased array technology that we’ve now successfully validated, both in the lab and in the field,” Northwood CEO Mendler told CNBC.
El Segundo, Calif.-based Northwood, unveiled earlier this year, focuses on the terrestrial side of the spatial connectivity equation. Ground stations provide the vital link for data transmission to and from orbit and are particularly crucial for satellite operation and control.
The company’s “Frankie” antenna prototype during testing in North Dakota on October 5, 2024.
Northwood Space
The startup is developing ground stations that will be mass-produced and is betting that its array-based system, called Portal, can outperform the satellite dishes traditionally used by ground station companies. Its Portal project will be able to connect to up to 10 satellites at a time, compared to one to three for satellite dishes.
“For Northwood, what we want to do is introduce a new standard of connectivity for businesses,” Mendler said.
The ground station as a service, or GSaaS, market is driving companies to seize the opportunity to manage the ground side of space infrastructure. In this sense, Amazon launched its AWS Ground Station service, and satellite communications giant Eutelsat proposed a nearly $1 billion deal in the sector.
Mendler’s Northwood wants to take GSaaS further, eliminating what it sees as “very stuck connectivity in another era” of power outages and “super expensive networks.”
“Making an analogy with the cellular industry – where we draw parallels to how cell towers and shared assets like that ultimately have super vertically integrated players – we ended up offloading and selling their assets “We expected the shared model to be one of efficiency,” Mendler said.
According to her, ground stations constitute “the third leg of the stool” of space technology, the other two being rockets, or cargo vehicles, and satellites, or orbital infrastructure.
“The industry is really at a point where there is a big appetite for growth, and this is something that we can really step into the industry and accelerate progress,” Mendler said.
Testing in North Dakota
Installation of the company’s prototype antenna in the early hours of October 2, 2024.
Northwood Space
Last week, Northwood’s team traveled to remote Maddock, North Dakota, to test its antenna prototype — “affectionately nicknamed Frankie,” Mendler noted — by connecting to a satellite Planet in orbit.
This effort is known as the TT&C – telemetry, tracking and control – test, with Northwood aiming to establish contact with Planet’s satellite in S-band and X-band frequencies.
“We were able to establish two-way communications for the duration of a pass with Planet’s satellites and conduct nominal communications for them. They were able to conduct their operations as they would on their own system,” Mendler said.
Test of the prototype on October 5, 2024.
Northwood Space
Northwood designed and built Frankie in four months, the company said, and was able to deploy the antenna “from truck to live testing” in six hours. Planet, with more than 150 imaging satellites in orbit, called the Northwood test a “major milestone.”
“Northwood not only solves historical problems such as cost and scale, but also successfully built and tested its phased array antenna faster than previously thought. We are proud to be part of this breakthrough in ground station technology,” Joseph Breu, Planet’s senior director of global ground networks, said in a statement to CNBC.
A rendering of a portal site.
Northwood Space
Northwood designed two antennas for its Portal system, with a larger 5-by-5-foot S-band frequency antenna and a smaller 18-by-18-inch X-band antenna.
The company plans to deploy Portal sites that can support up to 10 simultaneous satellite connections, with data rates greater than 1 gigabit per second per beam, starting next year. Northwood is currently evaluating locations in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand for its first portal sites.
“Performance-wise, we achieved everything we hoped for,” Mendler said, adding that Northwood is “really grateful for [Planet’s] participation and support throughout the event.”
“It unlocks a lot for the next chapter,” Mendler said.