Traverse City, Mich. – ATLAS Space Operations, a leading ground communications innovator in the space industry, announced today a series of advances in their offerings and partnerships. ATLAS has just celebrated its fifth anniversary, and with this milestone they also celebrate the addition of new customers using their Freedom™ Platform, existing customers launching new projects to space, and new hires to accommodate growth.
ATLAS customer BlackSky is scheduled to launch as part of a SpaceX rideshare program and will add two more satellites to their growing Earth observation constellation. BlackSky conducts Earth observation to drive intelligence and insight on the ground, and identifies ATLAS as a key partner in their efforts. BlackSky will make valuable use of ATLAS’ ground stations in Japan and Guam to further increase their revisit rates, working in tandem with ATLAS’ Freedom™ Platform to quickly retrieve and manage their data.
Another ATLAS customer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is beginning to gather data from its Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC-2) mission. This development will enable NOAA to significantly improve its tropical storm and hurricane prediction capabilities with virtually no human interaction. COSMIC-2 will primarily make use of ATLAS’ Tahiti and Ghana ground sites, delivering valuable intelligence that will shape global reactions to terrestrial weather phenomena.
ATLAS has also recently been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract by NASA. The goal of this program is to further the development of an algorithmic solution to improve satellite ground station contact schedules. This will be accomplished by implementing software that analyzes a project’s importance, optimizes tasks, and produces a goal-optimized schedule — all on a ‘lights-out’ basis. Once operational, both commercial and government users will see substantial cost and time reductions.
On top of these major steps for ATLAS and its customers, the company has recently celebrated more customer wins, including successful integration with Kubos, whose Major Tom interface is saving operators valuable time and cost in conjunction with the Freedom™ Platform.
ATLAS partners such as Astroscale are working on cutting-edge space technology to accomplish missions such as ELSA-D, which will demonstrate the ability to autonomously capture and deorbit a satellite in the event that it becomes necessary.
Having recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, ATLAS has grown from 22 full-time employees to 30, expanding office space and responsibilities in the process. Concurrently, ATLAS is establishing five new ground sites, which will bring the total number of ATLAS-owned ground stations to 14 before the end of the year. Through the unique challenges of COVID-19, ATLAS has worked hard to not only maintain operational efficiency, but to continue their rapid growth, helping customers to deliver invaluable insights and services from space.
About ATLAS Space Operations:
ATLAS Space Operations, Inc., based in Traverse City, Michigan, empowers global access to space through Freedom™, a simple solution for processing and analyzing data from space, through a global antenna network, powered by a revolutionary cloud-based software. ATLAS’s forward-thinking communications solutions are transforming the space industry by making ground communications simple, affordable and scalable than ever before.
Media Contact:
Dan Carey
ATLAS Space Operations
dcarey@atlasground.com
(877) 392-8527 ext. 105
