ATLAS Space Operations, a leading provider of Ground Station as a Service, has announced the activation of its latest antenna in Rwanda, marking a strategic expansion of its global ground network.
This development significantly enhances the ability of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 COSMIC-2 to deliver critical data to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA in support of global weather forecasting and space weather monitoring.
COSMIC-2 comprises six remote sensing small satellites that form a coordinated network, continuously orbiting the Earth to collect atmospheric data essential for weather prediction, space weather observation, and climate research.
In addition, ATLAS will utilise Rwanda’s 9.3-metre antenna, located in Mwulire and operating in the S and X bands.
This installation complements the company’s existing site in Sunyani, Ghana, which features a 3-metre antenna operating in the S band.
Together, these two locations form ATLAS’s only enterprise ground station sites on the African continent.
Furthermore, ATLAS currently manages over 3,000 satellite contacts per month across its global network of ground stations. Between July 2019 and 31 May 2025, the company successfully handled 156,653 contacts from NOAA satellites, maintaining a ground station availability rate of 99.36%.
During this period, data delivery averaged under 40 seconds per contact, underscoring ATLAS’s consistent commitment to operational efficiency and reliability.
Source: https://spaceinafrica.com/2025/07/16/atlas-space-operations-expands-ground-station-network-with-new-antenna-in-rwanda/