Since its launch, Microsoft Azure Space has been committed to enabling people to achieve more, both on and off the planet. This mission has transcended many industries, including agriculture, finance, insurance, and healthcare.
The advertisements we have made so far have helped show how our mission not only encompasses commercial industries but also enables government missions through winning recent contracts. By bringing in new business technologies, such as Microsoft 365, Azure Government Cloud, and Azure Orbital, government agencies are increasing the agility, flexibility, and agility of their missions. Today we’re announcing additional impetus for this movement, including:
- Viasat RTE integration with Azure Orbital ground stationbringing high-speed and latency data streaming from the spacecraft directly to Azure.
- Partnership with Ball Aerospace and Loft Federal in the Aerospace Development Agency (SDA) The National Defense Space Architecture (NeXT) Experimental Test Program, which will bring 10 satellites with experimental payloads into orbit and provide associated ground infrastructure.
- Developments in Hybrid Aerospace Engineering for the Defense Innovation Unit, US Space Force, and Air Force Research Laboratorywith new partners and demos that showcase the power, resilience, and agility of hybrid commercial systems operating across flexible multi-path, multi-orbit, and multi-vendor capabilities.
- Azure enables the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to deliver space cybersecurity operational capabilities and threat intelligence. The control center’s collaborative environment provides visualization of environmental conditions and threat information to quickly detect, assess, and respond to space weather events, vulnerabilities, incidents, and threats to space systems.
General availability of Viasat Real-Time Earth software on Azure Earth Orbiting Station
Microsoft has partnered with Viasat Real-Time Earth (RTE) to provide customers with new real-time spacecraft and mission management capabilities with Azure Orbital Ground Station as a Service. This includes the ability to view, schedule and modify passes at Viasat RTE sites to link data link to Azure and Bring the broadcast in real time Directly to Azure over the secure Microsoft WAN.
As commercial satellite operators require increasingly higher download rates to bring mission data such as hyperspectral radar or synthetic aperture to Azure, this partnership with Viasat increases the opportunity for access to a global network based on ka-band antennas. This opens up new business opportunities for tasks that require fast time to vision while also maintaining a high level of security.
“Viasat Real-Time Earth empowers remote sensing satellite operators who are pushing the high-speed downlink envelope. Our strong relationship with Azure Orbital enables these same customers, through increased access to our ground service across the Azure Orbital marketplace and a reliable high-speed terrestrial network, to reduce downlink time and deliver massive amounts of data.John Williams, Vice President, Viasat Real-Time Earth.
Learn more about the power of Azure Orbital Ground Station and how it can unlock new missions by bringing true history from space to Earth, read more here.
true anomaly
True Anomaly offers a fully integrated technology platform that combines training and simulation tools, advanced spacecraft manufacturing infrastructure, and autonomous systems to revolutionize space security and sustainability.
True Anomaly uses the extension Viasat RTE Integrate with Azure Orbital Ground Station via Microsoft APIs today to enhance their business with government.
“Together, True Anomaly, Viasat, and Microsoft will use the cutting-edge modeling, simulation, and visualization tools available to train Space Force Rangers and other operators. Our partnership will extend to satellite control, leveraging Microsoft Azure Orbital to provide seamless and efficient satellite management solutions for our fleet of autonomous orbiters. By joining forces, we open a path to disrupting space operations and training for years to come.Even Rogers, co-founder and CEO of True Anomaly.
This partnership combines True Anomaly’s innovative mission control system with Microsoft’s Azure Orbital and Viasat, providing a seamless satellite management solution for space security operations and training.
Microsoft, Loft Federal and Ball Aerospace are partners in the Aerospace Development Agency NExT
The Space Development Agency is mandated to create and maintain effective and affordable military space capabilities that provide continuous, flexible, global, and low-latency surveillance. The National Defense Aerospace Architecture Experimental Test (NExT) program will carry 10 satellites with test payloads into orbit.
SDA NExT builds on Microsoft’s Azure Space products and partnerships. Central to Microsoft’s solution for NExT is the combination of Azure Orbital Ground Station and Azure Government Cloud-Gapped cloud that will allow SDA to perform its tasks in a secure cloud environment.
Through NExT, SDA and the US Space Force will work together to securely operate a government-owned satellite constellation with the global Azure Orbital Ground Station network for the first time. In addition, Microsoft 365 will also provide them with productivity tools to enable employees to share information, which will help ensure a coordinated response.
The Microsoft Azure Government Cloud will enable SDA to extract spaceborne data insights from the cloud to the end edge, scale innovation faster, better meet Guardians’ core needs, and advance national security.
New developments and partnerships for hybrid aerospace engineering
Last year, we announced our contract to support the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (in conjunction with the US Air Force and Space Forces Research Laboratory) in Hybrid Aerospace Engineering (HSA). The goal of the program is to bring the advanced, reliable, and innovative capabilities of Azure Space, together with the Space Partner System, to serve as the foundation for realizing the Hybrid Space Architecture vision.
This year, Microsoft completed the first demonstration of the software focused on elastic connections and data paths that demonstrated:
- Multi-managed, multi-vendor, flexible, edge-to-cloud connectivity including use of Azure Orbital Cloud Access through satellite communications partner SpaceX And SES.
- Spatiotemporal Asset Catalogs (STAC) to operate a proprietary planetary computer to efficiently manage large geospatial data sets and enable spacecraft missions across multiple providers.
- An AI-enabled field user application to allow users to quickly and easily detect and collect satellites through an intuitive chat interface.
Microsoft is committed to a strong and growing partner ecosystem. As part of this first demonstration, the Aerospace Engineering Hybrid Ecosystem included capabilities from umbra and BlackSky.
Future demos will integrate all Azure Space capabilities including Azure Orbital Cloud Access, Azure Orbital Ground Station, Azure Orbital Space SDK, our leading security solutions and broad threat intelligence as well as many of the leading space partners.
Azure enables ISAC to deliver cybersecurity and threat intelligence operational capabilities
As a society, our increasing reliance on space systems for the commercial, government, and critical infrastructure sectors underscores the importance of sharing threat information to protect space infrastructure, which supports billions of people globally.
The Space Information and Analysis Clearinghouse (ISAC) was established several years ago, with Microsoft as a founding member, to facilitate timely collaboration across the global space industry to enhance the ability to prepare for and respond to vulnerabilities, incidents, and cybersecurity threats.
On March 30, 2023, Space ISAC’s Operational Control Center reached its initial operational capacity hosted in Azure. The control center’s collaborative environment provides visualization of environmental conditions and threat information to quickly detect, assess, and respond to space weather events, vulnerabilities, incidents, and threats to space systems. The monitoring center is supported by a dedicated team of 10 in-person analysts with additional virtual support enabled by Azure cloud architecture.
As the largest cloud architecture in the world, Microsoft has gained an exceptional advantage and gained unique expertise in what it takes to secure cloud workloads and containers. Microsoft has unique insight into emerging threats based on analysis of more than 65 trillion threat signals per day across more than 200 global consumer and business services and shares this insight with the Space ISAC community.
By working with the Space ISAC Watch Center, we can quickly share threat information with the space community. In addition, a new Microsoft Security Copilot capability will be available to our Space ISAC partners, enabling cyber defense at machine speed and scale.
What then
As the world becomes more and more complex in terms of global security, climate change, sustainability, and more, the necessity of partnership across the public and private sectors is becoming more apparent. Government agencies have the most demanding tasks and need to effectively manage huge and growing data sets, connect flexibly around the world, respond quickly to changing events, and provide a secure and reliable platform for diverse users. With rapid advances in space and cloud computing technologies, Azure Space is proud to work with the Industrial Ecosystem team and is committed to supporting these government agencies to innovate and tackle their toughest tasks.