SSC Expands Coverage With 4 Polar Antennas

LVA 7.3 m SSC-owned triband antenna in Inuvik, Canada. Photo by

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) is expanding its offerings with four new polar antennas, the company announced Monday. The first is a new 7.3 m tri-band antenna at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) in Canada. One more antenna at the ISSF, and two at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden, will be introduced later this year. 

This expansion is part of SSC’s work to offer fully global Ka-band connectivity by the end of 2021. SSC said this will meet growing demand for high downlink capacity for high resolution Earth Observation (EO) data. It calls dual use of ground stations in Sweden and Canada the “Kinuvik” concept. 

“Polar connectivity is particularly challenging due to the busy satellite traffic, which is why many of our customers choose to support their satellites through the dual use of our ground stations in Sweden and Canada … this complementary coverage ensures increased resilience and longer satellite passes,” said Dan White, EVP of the Americas region at SSC.