Viasat Opens Real-Time Earth Ground Station In Africa

Viasat Inc. VSAT, a global communications company headquartered in Carlsbad, California, has opened its first Real-Time Earth (RTE) facility in Africa, located in Accra, Ghana.

What Happened: Viasat has partnered with the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute, a government-based institution under Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, on the new station, which will provide Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) capabilities that support next-generation and legacy geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites using the S-, X-, and Ka-bands.

The facility is located at the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory and includes a Viasat full-motion 7.3M S/X/Ka-band antenna and associated infrastructure. According to the company, the antenna will enable global satellite operators to perform telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) capabilities and rapidly download, stream and/or disseminate satellite-based data in a timely and secure manner.

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Why It Matters: The Ghana facility expands Viasat’s RTE ground service network to a fifth continent — the company also operates locations in North America, South America, Europe and Australia.

John Williams, vice president for Real-Time Earth at Viasat, stated the facility is “bringing jobs and economic growth to the region while further differentiating Viasat's service through our ability to provide satellite operators access to world-class antenna systems for high-speed RTE connectivity of payload data across a secure network.”

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