Since launching Microsoft Azure Space, we’ve been targeted on three essential objectives:
- Connect anybody, anyplace, at any safety degree, again to the complete energy and potential of the Microsoft Cloud. This contains working with thrilling house start-ups like Muon Space and True Anomaly in addition to authorities businesses just like the United States Space Force.
- Enable real-time evaluation throughout petabytes of information gathered on orbit, in order that our prospects can take instant motion that delivers on their mission.
- Empower builders to develop, deploy, and run their functions on orbit.
As prospects and companions have adopted and experimented with the Azure Space portfolio, new and fascinating use instances are rising that illustrate what’s potential. Today, we’re excited to share a few of these buyer tales, together with updates for Azure Orbital Ground Station, Azure Orbital’s software program improvement equipment, and Microsoft Planetary Computer. While it’s nonetheless early days, these tales supply a glimpse at understanding how an accessible house layer can remodel the best way organizations throughout the private and non-private sectors serve their missions.
Satellite operators are utilizing Azure Orbital Ground Station for spacecraft communications
Delivering house knowledge to Earth requires a safe, sturdy floor community with low latency and excessive throughput—presenting numerous challenges for the operator. Opportunities for satellite tv for pc contacts are restricted by floor station protection, and it may be troublesome and costly to attain ample capability.
Azure Space is enabling partner-powered, space-to-cloud transmissions with end-to-end assist for house knowledge downlink, processing, storage, analytics, and dissemination. Azure Orbital Ground Station gives simple, safe entry to communication services required to assist all phases of satellite tv for pc missions—from launch to operations and decommissioning. Mission operations are seamless with self-service scheduling of contacts in Microsoft Azure with a managed knowledge path.
Muon Space collaborates with Microsoft for its first two launches
As beforehand introduced, Muon Space chosen Microsoft to assist its first-ever launch, utilizing Azure Orbital Ground Station as the only floor supplier for his or her MuSat-1 mission. Muon Space is ramping up for the launch of its second satellite tv for pc, MuSat-2, in early 2024—once more leveraging Azure Orbital Ground Station to carry down knowledge gathered by a prototype microwave sensor. Muon Space will present house climate and ionospheric knowledge to the United States Space Force.
“Launch and early operations is always a very stressful period for satellite operators. With Azure Orbital, we achieved contact with MuSat-1 within six minutes of separation from the launch vehicle. This early success, along with our continuous on-orbit operations, gives us confidence to use Azure Orbital for future missions.”
Paige Holland, Operations Automation Lead, Muon Space
Azure Orbital Ground Station for presidency prospects
We’ve seen rising momentum with industrial prospects adopting Azure Orbital Ground Station. Azure Orbital Ground Station is now out there in preview inside the Microsoft Azure Government area. Introducing Azure Orbital Ground Station into Azure Government permits authorities prospects to totally leverage a world accomplice ecosystem of floor stations, cloud modems, self-service scheduling, and a managed knowledge path.
True Anomaly and Viasat are leveraging Azure Orbital Ground Station in Azure Government for house area consciousness
True Anomaly chosen Microsoft and Viasat to offer floor assist for its upcoming launch of two Jackal spacecrafts—autonomous orbital automobiles for rendezvous and proximity operations. True Anomaly will schedule satellite tv for pc contacts at Viasat Real Time Earth (RTE) websites utilizing Azure Orbital Ground Station in Azure Government.
“Azure Orbital Ground Station’s managed data path makes it easy to connect to a global ground network. With one click of a button on Azure, we gain access to all Viasat Real Time Earth sites and simply indicate where the data from our spacecraft should land, while Microsoft handles the orchestration and connectivity. Working within Azure Government lets us meet our customers where they are.”
Jared Kirkpatrick, Jackal Block 1 Project Manager, True Anomaly
Provisioning fiber to Viasat websites
To present prospects with their knowledge as rapidly and securely as potential, Microsoft is provisioning high-speed, real-time cloud connectivity to pick Viasat RTE websites, permitting prospects to stream multi-gigabit per second downlinks.
“Viasat is collaborating with Microsoft to enable low-touch access to space communication solutions for our customers like True Anomaly. Azure Orbital Ground Station offers a common data plane and API to access our global antenna network that includes very high throughput data downlinks over Ka-band.”
Aaron Hawkins, Real Time Earth Director for Strategic Partnerships, Viasat
Watch this video to be taught extra about how our prospects are utilizing Azure Orbital Ground Support in assist of their missions.
Gaining insights from house knowledge
As the amount and worth of house knowledge continues to develop, having simple and reasonably priced entry to floor infrastructure will play a central position in serving prospects’ mission-critical operations. So too would be the potential of consumers to entry and analyze close to real-time knowledge gathered from house.
The way forward for the cloud will incorporate house options comparable to satellite tv for pc connectivity and Earth observational knowledge. Space-based sensors observing Earth and satellite tv for pc knowledge will more and more be used to enhance our knowledge insights on the bottom.
The newest episode within the Microsoft Future of the Cloud Webinar collection explores the position of house knowledge in creating “a planetary computer for a sustainable future.”
Watch the collection to find out about:
- Leveraging the potential of the cloud and house to allow data-driven resolution making on your group and missions.
- How Microsoft Planetary Computer helps world efforts of environmental sustainability and Earth science by enabling builders to construct instruments for measuring, monitoring, modeling, and managing wholesome ecosystems.
- The potential alternatives {that a} new Azure Space knowledge answer constructed on the Microsoft Planetary Computer will create for Microsoft’s prospects to unlock the complete potential of their Earth commentary knowledge.
Empowering builders to construct, deploy, and function on-orbit
Empowering any developer to construct and deploy functions into house will likely be crucial to decreasing the barrier to entry for collaborating within the house trade. Azure Orbital’s software program improvement equipment gives satellite tv for pc operators with the instruments and capabilities to unlock new enterprise fashions and allow mission necessities.
Loft Orbital buyer onboarding for digital missions on YAM-6 is now open
Over the previous two years, Microsoft and Loft Orbital have been collaborating to decrease the limitations to entry for house. A key pillar on this collaboration has been the enablement of “virtual missions,” making it simpler for builders to entry house capabilities with out having to develop or launch their very own {hardware} in house, and as a substitute by merely writing software program functions.
YAM-6 is the primary satellite tv for pc totally devoted to providing this functionality. Last week, we introduced that YAM-6 is now publicly accepting prospects for digital missions for 2024. General availability is deliberate for April 2024.
“Our joint product offering leverages Loft’s space infrastructure and Microsoft’s cloud and ground infrastructure to make it simple for anyone to deploy AI applications in space at scale. YAM-6 is supported by the Azure Orbital product portfolio, including Azure Orbital Ground Station, Azure Orbital space edge on-orbit application framework.”
Pierre Damien Vaujour, Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer, Loft Orbital
Space Compass leveraging digital missions to show out ideas rapidly
Space Compass—a three way partnership firm between NTT, Japanese Information and Communications Technology (ICT) chief, and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, Asia’s largest satellite tv for pc operator—is on a multi-year mission to deploy space-edge computing capabilities along with an ultra-speed optical knowledge relay community. This will permit house knowledge customers to make the most of real-time knowledge rather more effectively within the cloud setting (see Figure 1).
Over the previous three months, Space Compass has been working with Microsoft to discover use instances in an effort to raised perceive and reveal the worth of on-orbit processing, and how one can form their future house infrastructure to assist it.
“We are very excited to closely collaborate with the Microsoft team to develop a cutting-edge space computing solution. This is one of our key initiatives to realize the Space Integrated Computing Network.”
Shigehiro Hori, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Space Compass
Space Compass will likely be operating a digital mission on YAM-6 to reveal AI-based ship detection. This demonstration paves the best way and de-risks future missions that will likely be flown on Space Compasses’ personal satellites. Learn extra in regards to the Space Compass mission.
Both Microsoft and Space Compass consider within the energy of on-orbit processing, bringing AI to the sting in house with high-speed connectivity to the cloud.
Learn More
These thrilling use instances are just the start. Learn extra in regards to the ways in which Microsoft Azure Space can remodel the way you ship in your mission:
Microsoft Azure Space
Combine the chances of house with the facility of the cloud
