Clyde Space (www.clyde.space), a leading manufacturer of NanoSat and SmallSat technology, has commissioned a ground station at its Glasgow headquarters to control and track satellites for its customers.

The Stanford University spin-off has developed a highly adaptable software-defined ground-station solution to support its customers’ missions.

This has already attracted interest from customers in the Asian, European and American markets, with two ground stations currently being commissioned (in the Middle East and the USA).

The addition of the ground station means that Clyde Space is now a ‘one-stop shop’ with the ability to build advanced and complex satellites and then monitor them throughout their journey — strengthening its pre-and post-mission service to its growing list of clients.

The ground station antenna installed on the roof of the company’s headquarters at Skypark in central Glasgow (with the aid of a Scottish Enterprise SMART grant) has an unobstructed view of the sky; the ground station will be used to control future CubeSats built by Clyde Space.

It will be able to track several satellites at one time; communication with them will depend on their orbits.

Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark said: “There’s been a big demand for us to operate satellites as well as manufacture them. Our new ground station adds to the Glaswegian skyline.”

Over the last few years, Clyde Space has invested in product and process development, along with world-class assembly and test facilities at its Glasgow headquarters.

It is the only dedicated CubeSat supplier in the UK and now supports, in some form, 40% of all CubeSat missions.