On Orbit

The evolution of satellite being incorporated into 3GPP standards has been one of the key issues in the industry over the last few years, but it comes with important considerations as satellite operators look to integrate 5G NTN into their networks. I recently spoke with Comtech's Satellite and Space President Daniel Gizinski during World Space Business Week about this integration.  He puts the focus firmly on the utility and says 5G isn't a destination, it's a tactic. While it's easy to get caught up in technology, the goal is to provide a real service to customers. He explains the role that Comtech plays in the NTN landscape and how the company helps its customers as they migrate to new systems and continue services on legacy platforms as well.  This conversation was sponsored by Comtech  

Startup PiLogic is taking a unique approach to AI for the space industry, developing what it calls "exact AI," a type of AI in the category of automated reasoning. It differs from LLMs in that it's based on mathematically exact models that don't require high levels of compute. In this week's episode, PiLogic CEO Johannes Waldstein joins On Orbit for a conversation about applying exact AI to anomaly detection, diagnostics, autonomy, and sensor fusion for space systems. Waldstein comes from a tech background and has founded five companies, notably Fan.AI a data platform focused on sports sponsorship. He shares how he met one of his co-founders, former Google exec Mark Chavira through their son's Scouts program, and how their shared interests in AI led to the aerospace startup. He also addresses what people get wrong when they think that AI is just LLMs and what's next for PiLogic as it scales its technology and team. 

While orbital data centers have drawn attention and driven headlines this year, there's another story unfolding in spaceborne computing — the evolution of the space edge. It's a shift to higher-powered satellites that can process data at the edge, right where it's collected. Voyager Technologies CTO Paul Tilghman joins On Orbit this week to unpack this shift and how it supports the rise of proliferated data collected in space and applications like missile defense, that demand shorter timelines from sensor-to-decision.  Paul explains some of the underlying trends associated with this shift, the potential for clustered computing in space, and the importance of compatibility and open standards versus bespoke systems. He also shares an update on Space Edge, Voyager's space-hardened, managed cloud infrastructure designed to bring computing power directly to orbit. A prototype platform of Space Edge is flying on the ISS today.  This conversation was sponsored by Voyager Technologies.

As conflicts have erupted around the world, governments and MoDs are recognizing the urgent, immediate need for space-based intelligence. At the same time, the cost to build and launch satellites has dropped significantly, and it's changing how governments acquire satellite imagery and Al-enabled intelligence capabilities, driving them to embrace sovereign solutions from commercial partners. This week, BlackSky CTO Patrick O'Neil joins On Orbit for a conversation about the dynamics underpinning international adoption of sovereign space technologies. Patrick explains the spectrum of needs that begin with subscription-based assured access to commercial imagery and analytics and scale into fully sovereign systems. He also talks about how the speed of modern warfare is fueling demand for real-time dynamic monitoring and how AI helps unlock critical insights from the volumes of Earth observation data collected.

As AI is driving explosive growth in data center construction on Earth, there's accelerating interest in moving some of the computing infrastructure to orbit. The past few months have seen a flurry of announcements for future orbital data centers. Is this the latest hype cycle for the space industry, or a greenfield opportunity? The answer may be somewhere in the middle.  In this week's On Orbit episode, we're bringing you a recent discussion from Via Satellite's Tech Webcast series. It features JJ Jaworski, CEO and co-founder of Edge Aerospace; Rob DeMillo, CEO of Sophia Space; and Ronald Birk, principal director of the Space Enterprise Evolution Directorate for The Aerospace Corporation. The conversation digs into potential architectures for orbital computing, the technological developments and challenges, and realistic use cases and potential early adopters for in-orbit computing.  This conversation was sponsored by Edge Aerospace.