In August of this year, Czech aerospace research centre (VZLU) put into operation a ground station for receiving data from satellites in low-Earth orbit.
The station, which is located in the VZLU areal in Prague is connected to the global network of satellite ground stations called SatNOGS (Satellite Networked Open Ground Station), which allows to share access to the ground station with external organizations and other professionals. For VZLU, this also means that it can use other stations connected in the network, regardless of their geographical location.
Due to the reciprocal operation of the SatNOGS network, VZLU can receive data from its satellites even if they are not currently within range of the ground control station in Pilsen that belongs to University of West Bohemia. This option will be key for downloading large amounts of data from the VZLUSAT-2 satellite.
“Joining the global network of ground stations takes our communication with satellites to a new level. Without the need to build our own network of ground stations, we can verify and develop procedures for extremely fast communication with our satellites, “adds Jan Gromeš from VZLU.
In two months of operation, more than 350 observations of various satellites have already been performed on the VZLU ground station.
