Edit

Spacecraft object

  • Article
  • 2 minutes to read

Learn about how you can represent your spacecraft details in Azure Orbital Ground Station (AOGS).

Spacecraft details

The spacecraft object captures three types of information:

  • Links - RF details on center frequency, direction, and bandwidth for each link.
  • Ephemeris - The latest TLE.
  • Licensing - Authorizations held on a per link per ground station basis.

Make sure to capture each link that you wish to use with Azure Orbital when you create the spacecraft object. The following details are required:

Field Values
Direction Uplink or Downlink
Center Frequency Center frequency in MHz
Bandwidth Bandwidth in MHz
Polarization RHCP, LHCP, or Linear Vertical

Dual polarization schemes are represented by two individual links with their respective LHCP and RHCP polarizations.

Ephemeris

The spacecraft ephemeris is captured in Azure Orbital using the Two-Line Element or TLE.

A TLE is associated with the spacecraft to determine contact opportunities at the time of scheduling. The TLE is also used to determine the path the antenna must follow during the contact as the spacecraft passes over the ground station during contact execution.

As TLEs are prone to expiration, the user must keep the TLE up-to-date using the TLE update procedure.

Licensing

In order to uphold regulatory requirements across the world, the spacecraft object contains authorizations on a per link and per site level that permits usage of the Azure Orbital ground station sites.

The platform will deny scheduling or execution of contacts if the spacecraft object links aren't authorized. The platform will also deny contact if a profile contains links that aren't included in the spacecraft object authorized links.

For more information, see the Licensing (add link to: concepts-licensing.md when article is created) documentation.

Create spacecraft resource

For more information on how to create a spacecraft resource, see the details listed in the register a spacecraft article.

Managing spacecraft objects

Spacecraft objects can be created and deleted via the Portal and Azure Orbital APIs. Once the object is created, modification to the object is dependent on the authorization status.

When the spacecraft is unauthorized, then the spacecraft object can be modified. The API is the best way to make changes as the Portal only lets you make TLE updates.

When the spacecraft is unauthorized, then TLE updates are the only modifications possible. Other fields such as links become immutable. The TLE updates are possible via the Portal and Orbital SDK.

Delete spacecraft resource

You can delete the spacecraft object via the Portal or through the API. See How-to: Delete Contact

Next steps