The startup's co-founders, from left: CTO Griffin Cleverly, CEO Bridget Mendler, and Chief Software Officer Shaurya Luthra.
Northwood space
Northwood Space, the startup led by TV star and former singer Bridget Mendler, passed its first major development test last week by reaching out to… Planet Laboratories Satellite images in orbit.
“We are building this global network of satellite data, built on phased array technology that we have now successfully validated, both in the lab and in the field,” Northwood CEO Mendler told CNBC.
The Northwood, California-based company, which was unveiled earlier this year, focuses on the ground side of the space communication equation. Ground stations are the vital link for transmitting data to and from orbit, and are particularly important for the operation and control of satellites.
The prototype of the company's “Frankie” antenna during testing in North Dakota on October 5, 2024.
Northwood space
The startup is developing ground stations to be mass-produced and is betting that its phased array-based system, called Portal, can outperform parabolic dish antennas traditionally used by ground station companies. The gateway is expected to be able to connect to up to 10 satellites simultaneously versus one to three parabolic dish antennas.
“For Northwood, what we want to do is provide a new standard of communication for businesses,” Mendler said.
Ground station as a service, or GSaaS, involves companies looking for the opportunity to manage the ground side of space infrastructure. In this way, Amazon AWS Ground Station service has launched, and satellite communications giant Eutelsat has proposed a nearly $1 billion deal in the sector.
Northwood wants Mendler to take GSaaS one step further, by eliminating what it sees as “connectivity that is so stuck in a different era” of power outages and “expensive networks.”
“In analogy to the cellular industry — where we draw parallels to how cell towers and shared assets like those eventually have very vertically integrated players — they ended up offloading their assets and selling them to tower companies. We expected that the shared model would be a model of efficiency,” Mendler said.
In her view, ground stations are the “third leg of the chair” of space technology, the other two being rockets, or cargo vehicles, and satellites, or orbital infrastructure.
“The industry has really reached a point where there is a huge appetite for growth, and this is something we can really bring into the industry and accelerate progress,” Mendler said.
North Dakota test
Setting up the company's antenna prototype in the early hours of October 2, 2024.
Northwood space
Last week, the Northwood team went out to remote Maddock, North Dakota, to test the prototype antenna — “fondly called Frankie,” Mendler noted — by communicating with a Planet satellite in orbit.
Known as the TT&C test — Telemetry, Tracking and Control — Northwood aims to make contact with the Planet's satellite at both S- and X-band frequencies.
“We were able to achieve two-way communications for the duration of the pass with the Planet satellites and achieve nominal communications for them,” Mendler said. “They were able to perform their operations as they would on their own system.”
Prototype testing on October 5, 2024.
Northwood space
Northwood designed and built Franke in four months, and was able to deploy the antenna “from the outside of the truck for a live test in the sky” in six hours, the company said. Planet, which has more than 150 image satellites in orbit, heralded the Northwood test as a “major milestone.”
“Not only is Northwood solving historic problems such as cost and size, but it has successfully built and tested a phased array antenna faster than previously thought. We are proud to be part of this advancement in ground station technology,” said Joseph Brough, Senior Director, Terrestrial Networks. Planet, in a statement to CNBC:
View the portal's website.
Northwood space
Northwood designed two antennas for its Portal system, with a larger 5 x 5-foot S-band frequency antenna and a smaller 18 x 18-inch X-band antenna.
The company plans to deploy gateway sites that can support up to 10 simultaneous satellite connections, with data rates of more than 1 Gbps per packet, starting next year. Northwood is currently evaluating sites in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand for its first gateway locations.
“Performance-wise, we achieved everything we hoped to achieve,” Mendler said, adding that Northwood is “really grateful for (Planet’s) participation and support throughout the testing.”
“It opens up a lot of things about the next chapter,” Mendler said.
