{"id":17372,"date":"2022-06-24T00:16:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T16:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/microsoft-and-xplore-team-up-with-noaa-to-demonstrate-cloud-based-satellite-operations\/"},"modified":"2022-06-24T00:16:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T16:16:03","slug":"microsoft-and-xplore-team-up-with-noaa-to-demonstrate-cloud-based-satellite-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/microsoft-and-xplore-team-up-with-noaa-to-demonstrate-cloud-based-satellite-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft and Xplore team up with NOAA to demonstrate cloud-based satellite operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220623-noaa18-3-630x443.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-706067\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220623-noaa18-3-630x443.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220623-noaa18-3-768x540.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220623-noaa18-3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>An artist\u2019s rendition shows the NOAA-18 satellite in orbit. (NOAA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What do you do with an aging weather satellite? If you\u2019re the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, you turn to Microsoft Azure and a Seattle-area startup called Xplore to find out if there\u2019s a cheaper way to keep it going.<\/p>\n<p>After a yearlong demonstration project, the three partners determined that there <em>is<\/em> a way, thanks to cloud computing and cloud-based mission control software.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur work with NOAA and Xplore is driving innovation to virtualize satellite ground station operations in the cloud,\u201d Stephen Kitay, senior director of Microsoft Azure Space, told GeekWire. \u201cAnd this is empowering agencies to tap into the newest commercial technologies and unlock new levels of resiliency and global capacity for critical mission operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The demonstration \u2014 conducted under the terms of a cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA for short \u2014 showed that cloud-based services could provide satellite mission management for one of NOAA\u2019s legacy satellites, NOAA-18, in a way that met NOAA\u2019s specifications.<\/p>\n<p>Kitay was particularly proud of the fact that the first successful satellite downlink took place just a month after the project began, \u201cIt is pretty amazing how rapidly we were able to move together to demonstrate the capabilities here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The control system made use of Microsoft\u2019s Azure Orbital infrastructure, including the company\u2019s satellite ground station in Quincy, Wash. It also made use of Xplore\u2019s Major Tom mission control software platform, which the Redmond, Wash.-based company brought in-house as part of its acquisition of Kubos Corp.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s wonderful about Major Tom is that you can do testing of signaling and commands prior to actually doing them live,\u201d said Lisa Rich, Xplore\u2019s co-founder and chief operating officer. \u201cAnd so from a standpoint of sustainability and reliability, all of that speaks to the needs that NOAA has.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kubos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Kubos-MajorTom-Explainer_v3.1_15mb-1.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption><strong>This video explains how the Major Tom platform works. (Xplore \/ Kubos Video)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NOAA-18 was launched into polar orbit in 2005 to provide the agency with a wide range of environmental observations. Since then, its role has been taken over by other satellites, starting with NOAA-19 and continuing with a new generation of polar-orbiting satellites that are part of the Joint Polar Satellite System, or JPSS. Today, the NOAA-18 satellite is basically an on-orbit spare.<\/p>\n<p>Mission managers at NOAA\u2019s National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, or NESDIS, are assessing the results of the past year\u2019s demonstration to determine how best to support continued operation of NOAA-18 and other legacy satellites. The NESDIS team will provide recommendations on a path forward. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLegacy polar satellites require additional support,\u201d Justin Gronert, JPSS mission operations manager at NOAA, said in a news release. \u201cUnder the CRADA with Xplore\u2019s Major Tom and Microsoft, the capability to provide mission support was demonstrated, and we were able to conduct payload data processing via cloud-based mission control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kitay said the demonstration could well mark a \u201cparadigm shift\u201d in the way government-funded satellites are controlled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I would envision in the future would be a hybrid approach, where the government is integrating commercial as well as government systems, and really working to have an integrated platform,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly the focus is to drive efficiencies, and part of that efficiency ends up coming with a foundation that\u2019s spread across more customers.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Azure Orbital - Ground Stations as a Service\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u7sQ9e2aKjc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Azure Orbital offers \u201cground stations as a service.\u201d (Microsoft Azure Video)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rich told GeekWire that Major Tom is already being used for mission operations involving more than a dozen satellites. The software can handle secure connections over cloud computing services such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are stepping on the gas with Major Tom,\u201d Rich said. \u201cWe have a challenge to take on many more operators this year. We have companies that are building constellations and looking to have all of their satellites supported by Major Tom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Xplore also plans to use Major Tom for its own satellites \u2014 starting with an Earth observation satellite that\u2019s about the size of a doughnut box. \u201cWe\u2019re on track to be prepped for our first launch by the end of this year,\u201d Rich said. \u201cSo our engineering team is just forging ahead on schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Correction for 12:35 p.m. PT June 30:<\/strong> A previous version of this story cited a report that NOAA may hand over control of NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 to the U.S. Space Force when their spare status is dropped after the launch of the JPSS-2 and JPSS-3 satellites \u2014 but NOAA says it is not planning to transfer those satellites to the Space Force after those launches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s rendition shows the NOAA-18 satellite in orbit. (NOAA Illustration) What do you do with an aging weather satellite? If you\u2019re the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, you turn to Microsoft Azure and a Seattle-area startup called Xplore to find out if there\u2019s a cheaper way to keep it going. After a yearlong demonstration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4577,4578,4606,497,4017,4610,975,20,442,4426],"class_list":["post-17372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-azure","tag-azure-orbital","tag-cloud","tag-cloud-computing","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-azure","tag-noaa","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-xplore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}