(October 3, 2024 – New York City) – Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) today released Byte-Sized Space, its newest video in the Better Satellite World campaign. It explores how the space and satellite industry is going digital with software-defined satellites, digital ground systems and more. Byte-Sized Space is made possible by funding from Hughes Network Systems LLC and is part of SSPI’s Digital Space topic campaign. Byte-Sized Space debuted in the newest issue of SSPI’s online magazine, The Orbiter.
“SSPI’s campaigns draw attention to the most meaningful trends in the space and satellite business,” said executive director Robert Bell. “Not for us in the industry but for the potential customers, employees and investors who know little about how we can meet their needs.”
You can watch the video in the newest issue of The Orbiter, on SSPI’s website and on Youtube.
Inside the Story
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, the world was analog. We stored music in tiny grooves on vinyl discs and listened to it on record players. Our telephones had dials instead of buttons. They needed wires to send your voice to other phones. Your TV got its programs from the invisible airwaves through metal antennas. Sound and video were recorded on magnetic tape. And if you could find a computer anywhere, it took up a whole room.
Now, for billions of us, the world is digital. Your computer may be the size of a phone or even smaller. You listen to music stored as 1s and 0s in computer memory. You watch TV and movies and look at funny cat pictures on the digital cloud. Our telephones go everywhere with us and exchange 1s and 0s over the air. Finally, it’s time for space to be digital as well.
To keep up with our digital world, companies like Hughes Network Systems are launching software-defined satellites. Instead of fixed beams, they can change on the fly to offer connectivity where it’s needed most. Digital processing maintains their intricate orbits and automatically hands off service from one satellite to another. Digital ground systems from Hughes and other companies keep those satellites connected with Earth. Satellites are even exchanging text and voice with ordinary mobile phones.
About SSPI
Founded in 1983, Space & Satellite Professionals International (www.sspi.org) is on a mission to make the space and satellite industry one of the world’s best at attracting and engaging the talent that powers innovation. The space and satellite business has never seen a time of greater experimentation and disruption than we see today. Investment is the fuel for transformation, but people are the engine. SSPI helps the industry attract, develop and retain the talented people it needs to keep the engine turning. People who connect through high-profile events and gain recognition from prestigious awards. People who rely on SSPI for a broader understanding of the industry as much as for individual networking and career mentoring. From young people seeking a career path to industry veterans with wisdom to share, SSPI connects them all.
Talent, investment and opportunity flow to industries that make a difference. SSPI is the only organization that also promotes the enormous value of space and satellite through dramatic stories of our technologies and companies making a better world. Those stories overturn misconceptions about the industry that hold it back. They inspire our people and attract new ones to the industry. They help justify investment and give new customers a reason to care about our services and products. Through the stories we tell and the people we serve, SSPI inspires the growth of the $1 trillion space economy of the future.
For More Information
Victoria Krisman
Communications Manager
Space & Satellite Professionals International
vkrisman@sspi.org