AWS Ground Station Cheat Sheet

A fully managed service that enables customers to control satellite communications, process satellite data, and scale satellite ground operations by using a global network of AWS-managed ground station antennas.

Features

• Provides access to a global network of AWS-managed satellite ground station antennas.
• Eliminates the need to build, own, or operate physical ground station infrastructure.
• Supports on-demand satellite contact scheduling.
• Enables low-latency data delivery directly into AWS services.
• Integrates seamlessly with AWS services such as EC2, S3, VPC, IAM, and CloudWatch.
• Supports multiple satellite frequency bands, including S-band, X-band, and Ka-band.
• Enables scalable satellite data processing pipelines in the AWS Cloud.
• Uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model with no upfront infrastructure costs.

Key Concepts

Ground Stations

• AWS Ground Station provides globally distributed antenna locations operated and maintained by AWS.
• Ground stations are used to communicate with satellites during scheduled contact windows.
• Each location supports specific frequency bands and antenna capabilities.

Satellites

• Satellites are customer-owned or partner-operated spacecraft configured to communicate with AWS Ground Station.
• Customers provide satellite configuration details, including ephemeris data and communication parameters.
• Common satellite types include:
  • Earth observation satellites
  • Weather satellites
  • Communications satellites
  • Scientific research satellites

Contacts

• A contact represents a scheduled communication window between a satellite and a ground station antenna.
• Contacts are defined by start time, duration, satellite, and ground station location.
• During a contact, telemetry, tracking, command (TT&C), and payload data can be exchanged.

Mission Profiles

• Mission profiles define how satellite data is handled during a contact.
• They specify data paths, endpoints, and AWS resources used for data delivery.
• Common mission profile components include:
  • VPC endpoints
  • EC2 instances for data processing
  • S3 buckets for storage

Data Processing

• Satellite data can be streamed directly into AWS services in real time.
• Satellite data can be streamed directly into AWS services in real time.
• Typical processing tasks include:
  • Data decoding
  • Image processing
  • Analytics and transformation

High-Level Architecture Diagram

The supporting services (in order) are: AWS IAM, CloudWatch, and CloudTrail.

Use Cases

• Earth observation and remote sensing data ingestion.
• Weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
• Satellite imagery processing and analysis.
• Scientific research and space missions.
• Satellite operations and telemetry management.
• Rapid scaling of satellite ground infrastructure for commercial space companies.

Best Practices

• Pre-validate satellite configurations and communication parameters before scheduling contacts,
• Use multiple ground station locations to increase contact opportunities and resiliency.
• Automate data processing workflows using EC2, Lambda, or container services.
• Store raw and processed satellite data in Amazon S3 for durability and cost efficiency.
• Monitor contact execution and data flow using Amazon CloudWatch.
• Design mission profiles with fault tolerance and retry mechanisms.
• Secure VPC networking paths to limit exposure of satellite data pipelines.

Security

• Integrates with AWS IAM for fine-grained access control to Ground Station resources.
• Supports VPC isolation to securely route satellite data within private networks.
• Encrypts data in transit using secure communication protocols.
• Enables encryption at rest when storing data in Amazon S3 and other AWS storage services.
• Logs API activity and operational events using AWS CloudTrail.
• Follows the AWS shared responsibility model for infrastructure and customer data protection.

Region Availability

AWS Ground Station is available in select AWS Regions with globally distributed antenna locations.

Ground station availability varies by geographic location and supported frequency bands.

Customers typically choose Regions based on:

1. Satellite orbital paths
2. Latency requirements
3. Data residency and compliance needs

New ground station locations are added periodically.

Pricing

Pricing is primarily based on:

• Duration of satellite contacts (per minute)
• Type of antenna and frequency band used
• Data transfer into AWS services
• Associated AWS service usage (EC2, S3, networking, etc.)

There are no upfront costs and pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model.

References

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ground-station/https://docs.aws.amazon.com/braket/
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ground-station/https://docs.aws.amazon.com/braket/latest/developerguide/index.html