The Satcom category covers satellite communication technologies, systems and real-world applications. Topics include geostationary, medium Earth orbit and low Earth orbit satellite networks, satellite internet, SATCOM terminals, antennas, uplink and downlink operation, frequency bands, latency, link budgets, ground stations, maritime and aviation communication, military satellite systems, emergency connectivity, anti-jamming techniques and the role of satellites in global telecommunications. The articles explain how satellite communication works in practice, what technical limitations it has and how modern satellite networks are changing broadband access, remote operations, defense communication and critical infrastructure connectivity.
The idea sounds almost absurd at first. You are standing on the Moon, looking across a landscape of dust, rocks, ridges, and craters, and your navigation system calmly tells you where you are. For decades, that kind of scenario belonged more to science fiction than to practical engineering. GPS was…
The Starlink system represents a structural change in satellite communications, particularly when viewed through a military lens. Traditional satellite systems, especially those operating in geostationary orbit, were designed around predictability, stability, and centralized control. They offered reliable long-range communication, but at the cost of high latency, limited bandwidth, and slow…
Inter-satellite communication links (ISLs), also referred to as satellite-to-satellite links, are direct communication paths established between spacecraft without involving ground stations in every transmission. These links allow satellites to exchange data, control information, and routing metadata while remaining entirely in space.ISLs transform a group of satellites into a distributed, autonomous…
Spaceflight is often described through rockets, spacecraft, landers, rovers and astronauts, but none of these systems can operate usefully without communication. A spacecraft that cannot send data back to Earth is little more than a silent object moving through space. A lunar base without reliable radio links would be isolated….
Space-based connectivity has been moving from “nice-to-have for remote areas” to a core part of modern telecom—and the United States currently sits in the driver’s seat. The latest FCC approval for SpaceX adds more fuel to that lead: another 7,500 second-generation (Gen2) Starlink satellites are cleared for launch and operation….
Every satellite communication system lives or dies by its link budget. This is especially true for handheld LEO satellite phones, where transmit power, antenna size, and radiation efficiency are fundamentally constrained by physics, ergonomics, and regulation. What appears to users as “magic” connectivity is in reality a decibel-by-decibel optimized RF…