Dhruva Space, has been granted authorisation by the IN-SPACe to provide Ground Stations as a Service

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) has authorized Dhruva Space, a full-stack space engineering solutions company with headquarters in Hyderabad, to offer Ground Stations as a Service (GSaaS). According to the company, the authorization strengthens its Ground segment offers and marks a major step forward in its capacity to successfully and efficiently support a variety of Space operations on a commercial basis.

Dhruva Space has so far created two ground stations in the S and/or X bands and six ground stations in the VHF and UHF bands using entirely indigenous designs and development. The startup established its S&X Ground Station at IIT-Hyderabad in 2021 to commence internal research and development. This station is currently a key component of the company's Ground segment products. The facility, according to the startup, will be essential to the success of its next LEAP-1 hosted payload flight, which is slated for later in 2024. 

In order to transform its current network, which is located in India, into a global network of Earth Stations, Dhruva Space is also in talks with a number of international ground station operators. This would allow for unrestricted access to operate satellites from anywhere in the globe and vice versa.

According to Dhurva Space, establishing ground stations in India entails significant up-front operational expenses. By providing shared infrastructure, Access to Ground Stations as a Service (GSaaS) lowers financial obstacles for satellite operators and offers a more affordable option. Because there is less atmospheric interference, GSaaS in equatorial locations with low Earth inclination orbits provides longer satellite visibility, lower latency, and improved signal dependability. 

According to the firm, these tactically placed services maximize worldwide satellite operations for a range of tasks, such as remote sensing and telecommunications, guaranteeing effective data transfer and adaptability in operations. There is little availability of cutting edge ground station technology and expertise in India. Modern ground station services are now more widely accessible thanks to GSaaS, which enables new and developing private businesses to make use of first-rate infrastructure. 

With the flexible service architecture that Dhruva Space provides for GSaaS, satellite operators can better optimize their operating ability by modifying their ground station resources as needed. 

In addition to offering crucial mission operations services for the direct transmission of mission-critical data to specified platforms, GSaaS addresses the issue of worldwide access to ground stations.