SWISSto12, Europe’s fastest-growing satellite company, has announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art command and control facility in Athens, Georgia, U.S.A. The new facility will oversee the launch and manage the orbit raise to the right geostationary position of SWISSto12’s geostationary small satellites before handover to the company’s customers.
News of the Georgia facility follows an announcement in September by Intelsat, Viasat+Inmarsat, the European Space Agency (ESA) and SWISSto12 that the company’s HummingSat small satellite program has achieved major progress in its Preliminary Design Reviews ahead of its scheduled Intelsat 45 and Inmarsat 8 missions.
SWISSto12 is the first scale-up company in the world to develop and sell small satellites for geostationary orbit to global satellite operators. Customers of SWISSto12’s satellite – named HummingSat after the small and agile bird – include Viasat+Inmarsat and Intelsat.
HummingSat is a new class of SmallSat, up to five times smaller and lighter than conventional geostationary satellites. Unlike conventional geostationary satellites, HummingSat is designed for ride-share launch, with the first launches scheduled for 2026.
SWISSto12’s new facility in Georgia will house the company’s own satellite command and control facilities, acting as the nerve center for global mission operations before satellite handover to customers once orbital positioning and in-orbit tests are complete.
Following each satellite’s launch, SWISSto12’s team in Georgia will deploy electrical orbit raising (EOR) to take the satellites to their final location in geostationary orbit, 22,236 miles (35,785 km) above Earth. This innovative all-electric propulsion system offers significant advantages in terms of mass efficiency, and cost-effectiveness over traditional chemical propulsion technologies.
SWISSto12’s Georgia facility is staffed by a team of highly skilled EOR experts with experience in satellite engineering, data analytics, mission control and flight operations. The facility is equipped for sub-system and payload testing, anomaly detection and processing as well as the operation of SWISSto12’s satellite spaceflight simulator; a sophisticated and dynamic digital twin of the HummingSat satellite. This digital twin allows the SWISSto12 team to simulate, analyze and optimize the orbital performance of each HummingSat to ensure mission success for customers.
Mike Kaliski, HummingSat Program CTO, SWISSto12 said, “The world depends on geostationary satellite communications for cost-efficient connectivity. HummingSat offers telecommunications operators a lower cost and more agile asset than conventional large geostationary satellites while maintaining high performance and reliability. Our new Georgia facility, staffed by our dedicated team of mission experts, is a state-of-the-art satellite command and control center that will ensure precise orbital positioning for HummingSat and successful geostationary deployments for our customers from first launches in 2026 and beyond.”
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