Premium
Non‐geostationary satellite orbit communications satellite constellations history
Author(s) -
Butash Tom,
Garland Peter,
Evans Barry
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of satellite communications and networking
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.388
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1542-0981
pISSN - 1542-0973
DOI - 10.1002/sat.1375
Subject(s) - geostationary orbit , constellation , computer science , satellite , telecommunications , satellite constellation , communications satellite , broadband , remote sensing , astronomy , geology , physics
Summary This special issue of the journal on ‘constellations’ comes at a critical time in their development as a second wave of such non‐geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) systems is being planned and deployed. These mega‐constellations as they have become known are, with a few exceptions, very much larger than those in the first wave and are focused on broadband and 5G applications rather than speech and narrow band data as those deployed in the first wave during the 1990s. However, as we explain in this editorial, there are many similarities in the design and business plans to the first wave and, perhaps, many similar lessons to be learned.