AWS Public Sector Blog
Strengthen federal space resilience with AWS Ground Station
A resilient space architecture uses commercial solutions integrated with government-owned capabilities to create an environment that is secure, redundant, dynamic, and distributed across multiple orbits, satellites, ground stations, networks, and mission operations centers. The architecture is designed to recover from disruptions and maintain mission-critical operations.
The US Federal Government has prioritized the integration of cost-effective commercial solutions into their space architectures to deliver capabilities that improve resiliency while maintaining speed and security. The U.S. Space Priorities Framework states that, “the United States will leverage new commercial space capabilities and services to meet national security requirements.”
HAQM Web Services (AWS) is the leading cloud service provider with a global network of ground stations. This positions AWS uniquely to address the critical needs of federal customers in advancing their satellite communications. AWS offers fully managed, cloud-based ground segment hardware and software solutions that meet the most stringent security standards while delivering the speed and scale these customers require.
AWS Ground Station provides customers with on-demand access to AWS-managed antennas that are available as shared or dedicated resources, scaling to the unique requirements of the mission. By adding resource capacity and redundancy with AWS-managed antenna systems, government customers can rapidly increase, differentiate, and distribute their ground segment capabilities. This enables a more flexible and resilient space architecture that can dynamically adapt to changing mission demands.
Scale from the ground up at low cost
Public sector organizations and commercial enterprises use AWS Ground Station to quickly and easily command, control, and downlink data from satellites. The managed service offers a global network of geographically dispersed S/X-band antennas that are connected to AWS global infrastructure, providing access to a low-latency, high-bandwidth global fiber network. This enables satellite operators to turn raw satellite data into processed information or analyzed knowledge within seconds of reception at the antenna.
Similar to other AWS services, when using AWS Ground Station as a shared resource, operators schedule time on antenna hardware used by multiple customers. Antenna time is scheduled on a per-minute basis and customers only pay for the time used. This model leverages economies of scale to deliver cost savings of up to 80% in comparison to traditional ground station operations. Customers can quickly scale S/X-band satellite operations to meet increased demand without the cost of building, operating, and maintaining their own ground stations. The ability for federal space organizations to rapidly increase critical resources with existing AWS antennas is a cost-efficient path to distributed ground architectures that can maintain mission functionality in the event of disruptions.
Dedicated antennas to strengthen mission assurance
Most satellite operations today take place in low earth orbit using S- and X-band. Expanding to a multi-orbit, multi-altitude, multi-constellation approach adds resiliency to the federal architecture by distributing capabilities across numerous vectors. While this can be achieved with shared infrastructure, some operations require dedicated antennas to meet unique frequency, availability, geographic, security, and digital signal processing needs.
Dedicated antenna solutions on AWS enable customers to supplement or supplant existing ground networks with modern satellite communications systems designed, configured, and deployed according to their specific mission requirements. For customers requiring exclusive access, AWS Ground Station can provide dedicated antennas that are fully supported by AWS global infrastructure, security, and maintenance operations. Beyond S/X-band, customers with UHF/VHF, L-, C-, and Ka-band requirements can use scalable cloud resources and dedicated infrastructure to increase capacity, capability, and redundancy. Dedicated antennas are available in single- or multi-band configurations and can be deployed to locations globally, allowing customers to select sites strategically advantageous to the mission. AWS’ antenna network spans nine countries and includes ground station locations in the Arctic, Indo-Pacific, and Europe that are available for dedicated operations.
AWS Ground Station provides customers with secure, scalable, and cost-effective ground segment solutions.
Secure data streaming
Resilient space operations are essential to national security and economic opportunity. Traditional ground station infrastructures are expensive and may not be able to ingest, access, or analyze critical downlink satellite data at scale. AWS provides solutions that are secure and fast while remaining cost-effective. All AWS Ground Station antennas are connected to the AWS global infrastructure for fast, reliable data transport, with data automatically encrypted in transit and at rest. The service is designed to meet strict encryption compliance and regulatory requirements, helping to reduce the operational overhead and complexity involved in protecting sensitive data like directly identifiable data and ephemerides. In a single pass, operators can securely stream data from electro-optical imaging, synthetic aperture radar, and very high resolution satellites for near real-time processing. AWS’ ability to deliver sensitive information to geographically dispersed locations enables global data redundancy, a key factor in a resilient space architecture for critical mission sets.
Interface with existing systems
AWS provides customers with options to securely integrate our antennas with their existing ground networks and applications. Integration of commercial space solutions must allow the government to leverage industry capabilities in a means that is seamless and fosters interoperability. Siloed systems prevent federal space architectures from effectively recovering during failures.
AWS Ground Station provides APIs that enable customers to programmatically integrate their platforms with AWS antennas. Satellite operators can act as antenna brokers or intermediaries, using a centralized scheduling interface that leverages our APIs to connect mission owners with a disperse network of commercial and government ground stations. Another common use case for AWS Ground Station APIs is the ability to tie into larger existing command and control (C2) systems used for decision-making. For cloud-native C2 workflows, customers can task satellites and downlink data with AWS Ground Station, manage data ingestion with HAQM Kinesis Data Streams, and use HAQM SageMaker to build machine learning applications for satellite data sets so analysts can derive actionable insights in near-real time.
Conclusion: Managed ground stations enhance resilient space architectures
AWS Ground Station is equipped to align with federal government commercial space integration strategies and well-suited to help build more resilient space architectures. To meet current and future challenges, national security, defense, and civil space organizations require secure ground networks for reliable satellite communications. AWS Ground Station shared and dedicated antennas provide customers with secure, scalable, and cost-effective ground segment capabilities that can be integrated with existing infrastructure. Expanding ground segment capacity and redundancy across AWS-managed antennas enables faster deployment, greater geographic distribution, and enhanced operational flexibility—key requirements for maintaining critical federal government space operations.
For information on getting started with AWS Ground Station, please contact us or connect through your AWS account manager. You can also explore the additional resources included below.
Read more about AWS for aerospace and satellite: