Ramon.Space onboard processors. Photo: Ramon.Space

Eutelsat Group awarded Ramon.Space a contract to provide digital communication channelizers for the OneWeb satellite extension, Ramon.Space announced Wednesday. 

Ramon.Space will initially supply 70 flight sets of its digital communication channelizer systems, based on its NuComm product line, over the coming months. The company said these will upgrade Eutelsat OneWeb’s existing analog channelizers, which are expected to be integrated into the satellites and launched starting at the end of 2026.

This comes after Eutelsat ordered a 100-satellite update for the OneWeb constellation from Airbus Defence and Space in December. 

The Ramon.Space channelizers are designed to include features like digital filtering, any-to-any switching, in-orbit programmability, and adding other software-defined solutions while in-orbit. 

“When you move into the digital domain, channelizers can do much more. Now you can start writing software onto it and adding additional features, capabilities that do not exist in analog channelizers,” Ramon.Space CEO Avi Shabtai told Via Satellite. “That enables the digitalization of the OneWeb constellation and moving it into the digital era, while still supporting and maintaining the services for their existing customers.” 

The digital channelizers will support mission adaptability in future systems, such as Europe’s IRIS² constellation. 

Fabien Vernat, Gen1 Replenishment program manager for Eutelsat Group, said in a release that the work with Ramon.Space allows the constellation to keep serving its customers “while paving the way towards an architecture in line with the European IRIS2 constellation.” 

Ramon.Space has offices in the U.S., the U.K., and Israel. Shabtai did not specify the specifics of the value chain for this project, but notes that Foxconn is one of the company’s biggest partners and Ramon.Space is building the ability to manufacture in different regions of the world. 

Shabtai said this is a substantial opportunity for Ramon.Space to support one of the largest commercial constellations. The company wants to become a “dominant” player in serving the computing infrastructure of satellite constellations. 

“We came with the intention to deliver computing infrastructure for space and to support satellites with computing elements and computing capabilities,” Shabtai said. “We’re trying to bring these capabilities into the satellites and to make the satellite smarter, autonomous, programmable, to perform tasks in orbit, to perform AI and machine learning, and advanced digital processing capabilities. This is the trajectory we are going toward.”