The bottleneck for space is here on Earth.

Over the last decade, we’ve watched as the space industry has expanded dramatically, while our critical ground infrastructure has not kept pace. Ground stations today were designed for a different era, where it was acceptable for connectivity to be sparse and unreliable, or for companies and organizations to devote enormous resources to build their own capabilities. As space applications mature and expand, we need to set a new baseline that expects always-on satellite connectivity for a large, robust, and industrialized space economy.

Our mission is to serve Earth by industrializing space. To deliver on this mission, we are building the most efficient solution for reaching always-on satellite connectivity. Northwood is building the first shared network of phased array ground stations — like cell towers, for satellites.

Today I am proud to share that we have achieved the first major milestone towards this mission.

Rethinking satellite communications capacity from the ground up

We’ve spent the last four months designing, building, and testing a new kind of all-digital phased array antenna for commercial ground station service — and as of this week, we know it works.

A few days ago, Northwood achieved a major milestone by completing the first-ever live sky test of our phased array antenna. We successfully connected to the satellites of our partner Planet Labs, a leading provider of data about Earth, with hundreds of satellites imaging the planet every day. Our multi-beam system achieved bidirectional communications links over the full duration of a pass, running nominal operations for Planet. Unlike traditional parabolic antennas, which are limited to tracking one satellite, our phased array can seamlessly connect with multiple satellites at the same time. The digital nature of our system also removes mechanical wear-and-tear and single points of failure in the RF chain that are present in parabolic systems. The implications for satellite operators are substantial — unprecedented spacecraft access, reliable communications for critical missions, and new dynamic capabilities.

In the past four months we have designed, built, and tested our phased array system. Similar examples of phased array projects have taken years to develop. Thanks to the unique combination of expertise on our engineering team, we were able to challenge this timeline. Every aspect of this antenna, from the beamforming software to the custom electronics, was designed in-house to optimize for efficiency. This will continue to be a critical aspect of Northwood’s manufacturing approach as we set out to replicate our phased array systems, called Portals, at new site deployments beginning in 2025.

Deployment similarly introduced a new standard of speed. From the moment the antenna arrived in North Dakota, it took less than six hours to deploy and begin live testing. This is a contrast to traditional parabolic antennas, which often require large concrete foundations and weeks of preparation. The ability to deploy quickly means greater ground responsiveness, resilience, and access to satellite communications, opening up opportunities to connect more spacecraft and deliver the critical data that impacts life on Earth.

Our live sky milestone validates both the technical capability and rate of deployment that will unlock the ability to rapidly scale a global ground network. This moment is all thanks to Northwood’s world-class engineers across every function that have devoted many long nights and applied their tremendous talent to make this work possible!

And this step is the first of many. Looking ahead, we are preparing for the deployment of Northwood Portals across strategic locations around the world starting in 2025.

If you’d like to learn more or get involved, visit our careers page or contact us at contact@northwoodspace.io