Tag: Goonhilly Earth Station

Intuitive Machines to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station and COMSAT

The addition of 44 antennas to Intuitive Machines’ network is expected to enhance support for customers’ GEO missions and accelerate progress toward Moon base and deep-space operations.

Intuitive Machines Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd., a deep-space communications provider with major ground station assets in the United Kingdom and Goonhilly USA Inc. (dba COMSAT).

Goonhilly is a provider of lunar and deep space communications services. Since becoming the first commercial provider of these services in 2021, Goonhilly has supported more than 20 missions for space agencies NASA and ESA and private exploration companies, including Intuitive Machines and ispace, representing a vital UK contribution to the international space sector.

In 2024 and 2025, the company played a critical role in Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 and IM-2 lunar missions.

The acquisition will include the Goonhilly Lunar and Deep Space Communications, Commercial Satcom and Defense and Security divisions. It significantly expands global ground-station resources and capacity on Intuitive Machines’ integrated space-to-ground network.

Upon completion of the proposed acquisition, the expanded network is expected to deliver communications, data transport and position, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities for sustained lunar and cislunar operations.

Goonhilly’s and COMSAT’s civil, commercial and government customers are expected to complement Intuitive Machines’ existing customer base and broaden the Company’s reach into adjacent industries. Upon completion of the acquisition, its strategic UK location will expand visibility across major Earth‑viewing arcs, increasing contact opportunities for lunar and deep‑space missions. With deep expertise in antenna planning, scheduling and station maintenance, Goonhilly’s ground station assets and competencies strengthen Intuitive Machines’ ability to deliver end‑to‑end mission support.

“Customers have been clear that they want a single, integrated, and resilient solution for their communications and PNT needs as they accelerate missions at an unprecedented pace,” said Steve Altemus, co‑founder and CEO of Intuitive Machines. “Our partners of integrated space‑to‑ground network are configured to support missions across LEO, lunar and cislunar environments through a single source for communications, PNT and data transport. Goonhilly will provide the backbone for this network, scales our global ground presence and will bring a strategic core competency to the Intuitive Machines team.”

The Intuitive Machines space-to-ground network combines a lunar data-relay constellation with a global ground segment to maintain persistent line-of-sight communications with the Moon. Goonhilly is expected to enhance this architecture with deep space assets, including the GHY6 32-meter antenna, the cryogenically cooled GHY3 30-meter antenna, and multiband support across X-band, S-band, and Ka-/Ku-band. This will give customers greater flexibility in mission design and more options for communicating with spacecraft throughout lunar and deep space operations.

“Goonhilly has spent years building a world class deep space communications capability,” said Kenn Herskind. Executive Chairman of Goonhilly. “Joining Intuitive Machines will allow us to scale that capability globally and directly support the next era of lunar exploration. Together, we will be creating a commercial lunar communications network that is interoperable, resilient, and ready to support Artemis and international missions.”

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, including under the UK National Security and Investment Act 2021 and from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

May 19, 2026
Seen & Heard: Tracking tar balls, testing SBAS for UK

“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.

Photo: spxChrome/E+/Getty Images

Citizens Clean Up Coasts

Two citizen groups are taking action with the help of Esri ArcGIS mapping tools. North Coast World Earth uses Esri Ireland’s platform on the Northern Irish coast to record litter hotspots and engage with local communities. The volunteer group has collected nearly 3 tons of litter. In California, the Surfrider Foundation employed ArcGIS Hub to streamline cleanup operations after a major oil spill off Huntington Beach in October 2021. Citizens submitted more than 1,100 reports using the ArcGIS QuickCapture photo app to share the date, time and coordinates of toxic tar balls on beaches from Oxnard to San Diego.

Photo: ©Goonhilly

UKSBAS Put to the Test

A new series of tests will assess whether the United Kingdom satellite-based augmentation system (UKSBAS) for GNSS can develop into full operational capability to support safety-critical applications post-Brexit. Inmarsat, Goonhilly Earth Station and GMV NSL are conducting the UK Space Agency-funded tests. The signal is now stable and operational, enabling ongoing testing and validation by industry, regulators and users. If successful, UKSBAS will enable assessment of more precise, resilient and high-integrity navigation for maritime and aviation users in UK waters and airspace.

Image: ESA

Smart GNSS Monitoring

More than 11,000 people around Europe and the world have turned their smartphones into GNSS monitoring tools by downloading the CAMALIOT app, so far delivering more than 53 billion measurements of meteorology and space weather patterns to researchers, reports the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA asks CAMALIOT volunteers to leave their smartphones by a window each night with GNSS on. The phones record small variations in satellite signals, gathering data for machine-learning analysis. More than 50 smartphone models with dual-frequency receivers can use the app.

Image: guirong hao/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Home Grown vs. Imported

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his stamp of approval to his country’s indigenous NavIC during a drone festival May 27. Despite that, the Indian Army purchased three GNSS receivers from Baidu, a Chinese company, instead of relying on home-grown companies as the contract required, reports The New Indian Express. The receivers are for survey stations of the College of Military Engineering. A few Indian manufacturers objected to the purchase, the newspaper said, but their concerns were brushed aside by the Department of Military Affairs.

July 26, 2022
ESA studies lay path to navigating the moon

Illustration of side-lobe signals from GPS satellites. (Image: ESA)

Two European Space Agency studies found that the signal from navigation satellites orbiting Earth could be used to navigate the moon’s surface.

News from the European Space Agency (ESA)

To pinpoint a location accurately, a receiver — in smartphones or on a spacecraft — needs to collect and combine signals from at least four navigation satellites. The receiver determines its distance from each of the satellites by measuring the time that it takes for the signal to travel from the satellite to the receiver.

Navigation satellites aim their antennas directly at Earth. Satellites orbiting above the navigation (GPS in this image, but Europe’s own navigation system is Galileo) constellation could only hope to detect signals from Earth’s far side. Now spacecraft can make use of signals emitted sideways from navigation antennas, within what is known as “side lobes.” Just like a torch, they shine energy to the side as well as directly forward.

Navigation satellites orbit 22,000 kilometers above Earth’s surface. As they point in the direction of Earth, any spacecraft between them and Earth are served well by their signal. But around 10 years ago, engineers started demonstrating that spacecraft outside the orbit of navigation satellites could also navigate in space using “spill over” signal from the satellites.

Then in 2012, two discovery and preparation studies explored a seemingly radical question: could this spillover signal even be used to navigate our way around the moon, and if so, what kind of receiver would we need to build to be able to use these signals?

The studies found that the signal from navigation satellites orbiting Earth could be used to navigate the moon’s surface. But with the signal being so weak, they found that a new type of receiver would need to be built, and at the time there was no clear application for this.

Eight years later, ESA invested in the development of such a receiver, and is exploring whether it could be demonstrated on the Lunar Pathfinder mission. ESA is collaborating with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and Goonhilly Earth Station on this mission, which will provide exciting new opportunities for science and technology demonstration. In particular, it will help lay the groundwork for providing navigation services around the moon, currently studied through two ESA NAVISP activities and culminating in the Moonlight initiative.

“We have now accurate simulation results that show that navigation signals may be used at moon orbit and provide good performances,” said Dr. Javier Ventura-Traveset, head of the Galileo Science Office and in charge of coordinating all GNSS moon activities for ESA’s Navigation Directorate. “And with an innovative receiver in Lunar Pathfinder, we could have the first ever experimental evidence of this.

Artist’s impression of the Lunar Pathfinder mission. (Image: SSTL)

“Furthermore, we are also studying how existing navigation constellations may be complemented by additional moon-orbiting satellites, providing additional ranging signals for an optimal navigation service including moon landing and moon surface operations. This is being done as part of the ESA NAVISP program and through the ESA Moonlight initiative.”

“The discovery and preparation studies have been eye-openers and they are currently being followed up by a NAVISP activity aiming to develop the highly sensitive spaceborne navigation receiver planned to fly on board Lunar Pathfinder,” said ESA Radio Navigation Engineer Pietro Giordano. “This technology will enable improved performances and much more cost-effective ways to navigate and operate missions to and around the moon.”

October 2, 2020