While Satelles focuses on satellite time and location services for digital infrastructure companies, there are potential aviation applications.
Content Body
Satellite network operator Iridium Communications will pay about $115 million to acquire the remaining 80 percent of Satelles, a provider of “secure satellite-based time and location services that complement and protect GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems.” Iridium had previously invested in Satelles and owned about 20 percent of it.
While Satelles focuses primarily on providing its satellite time and location (STL) services for digital infrastructure companies, there are potential applications for aviation. Satelles offers smaller form factor devices that can be integrated with data processing and storage servers to provide critical positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data.
According to Iridium, “The STL service utilizes the stronger broadcast paging channels of the Iridium satellite constellation to deliver precise timing information, which provides truly global, secure time and location signals that are one thousand times more powerful than GNSS constellations. The service is resilient to regional GNSS outages, works inside buildings, and is being used today to secure digital infrastructure for financial markets, governments, and major corporations.”
STL could help mitigate GNSS jamming and spoofing, with dedicated STL receivers incorporated into aircraft avionics. “The most immediate application would be in aviation/FAA ground infrastructure to support PNT resilience in their networks,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch told AIN. “[In the] longer term, there would be an opportunity for avionics providers to build STL into their avionics to protect the integrity of the GPS signals their boxes use and provide a way to tell if GPS signals were compromised or spoofed. We don’t think we’ll be an alternative to GPS or other GNSS applications—only a backup to constantly check signal integrity.
“Our model would continue to be to work with avionics providers directly for them to incorporate our technology into their solutions, get their products certified and approved, and offer it to their customers.”
Satellite network operator Iridium Communications will pay about $115 million to acquire the remaining 80 percent of Satelles, a provider of “secure satellite-based time and location services that complement and protect GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems.” Iridium had previously invested in Satelles and owned about 20 percent of it.
While Satelles focuses primarily on providing its satellite time and location (STL) services for digital infrastructure companies, there are potential applications for aviation. Satelles offers smaller form factor devices that can be integrated with data processing and storage servers to provide critical positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data.
According to Iridium, “The STL service utilizes the stronger broadcast paging channels of the Iridium satellite constellation to deliver precise timing information, which provides truly global, secure time and location signals that are one thousand times more powerful than GNSS constellations.”
STL could help mitigate GNSS jamming and spoofing, with dedicated STL receivers incorporated into aircraft avionics. “The most immediate application would be in aviation/FAA ground infrastructure to support PNT resilience in their networks,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch told AIN. “[In the] longer term, there would be an opportunity for avionics providers to build STL into their avionics to protect the integrity of the GPS signals their boxes use and provide a way to tell if GPS signals were compromised or spoofed.”