First Commercial Ground Station in Finland Starts Service on X and S Bands
Finnish new space company NorthBase Oy (Ltd.) has finalized its first ground station NorthBase-2 in Muonio, Finnish Lapland. The station is the first commercial ground station in Finland, supporting downlink on S and X bands and uplink on S band. Location above 68 degrees north provides exceptional visibility to polar orbit satellites available only in few countries in the world.
“This is a great day not only to us but also the Finnish space community, as we are opening up a completely new business area for Finland”, tells NorthBase chairman Dr. Tommi Rasila. “Our first station is a very capable one by the industry standards, and at the same time serves as a proof of concept (POC) for our future plans as we are going to expand our business and capacity in 2023”.
Key technology partners of NorthBase include Safran Data Systems, the world leading satellite tracking antenna systems supplier, and Contec, a South-Korean growth company operating antennas in several countries.
The antenna is a Safran Data Systems Legion 400, a state-of-the-art product primarily designed for supporting MegaConstellations & SmallSats. “We are both glad and proud that – being the first company in this business in Finland – NorthBase chose Safran as their antenna supplier”, cheers Sales and marketing director of Safran Data Systems Mr. Sylvain Baissac. “I am convinced that we are at the start of the deployment of Safran’s well-known systems in Finland due to the particular geographical situation of this site.”
NorthBase-2 is integrated in the antenna network of Contec and can be used by web-based service platform ContecOne, providing easy mission creation and access to all ground stations in the network. Hence, NorthBase customers can take benefit from the Contec ground stations and vice versa, bringing more capacity and visibility to everybody. “NorthBase-2 in Muonio brings good addition to our current network, with other stations in Korea, Alaska, Sweden, South Africa and Ireland”, confirms Contec founder Dr. Sunghee Lee. “We look forward to working together with NorthBase in serving the global space community with trustworthy and agile services”.
Location of NorthBase-2 is under 24/7 surveillance to maximize security, and the station is connected to internet via optical cable with mobile connection for redundancy. NorthBase-1 is under construction in Tampere and will serve on VHF and UHF bands for LEOP and smaller payload needs.
For further information, please contact:
NorthBase Oy, Founder and Chairman Tommi Rasila
Tel. +358 407 508 158, e-mail tommi.rasila@northbase
NorthBase in brief
NorthBase was founded in 2019 to develop and operate satellite ground stations in Finland. Company is in 100% Finnish ownership with headquarters in Tampere, serving earth-orbit satellite operators globally. Finland offers superb environment for satellite ground stations with its northern location, good infrastructure and stable operating environment.
CONTEC in brief
CONTEC is a spinoff from Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) which provides space ground station/satellite image processing and application services. With an aim to provide ‘all-in-one’ downstream solution, CONTEC built a global network of ground stations and developed technologies for satellite data processing and analysis.
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