Satellite Technology of the Year Nominees for 2024

The Via Satellite Technology of the Year award recognizes breakthrough technology achievements and the impact they have on the satellite industry. This award is now in its seventh year, and has recognized technology achievements like the integration of satellite into 3GPP standards; Apple’s emergency messaging via satellite; and Astroscale’s ELSA-d mission. These technologies are evaluated on their ability to meet significant market demand; create considerable cost-savings or technical efficiencies; make a profit; improve quality of life; disrupt the market; and/or demonstrate a scientific breakthrough.

The winner of the award will be determined by a public vote combined with the votes of the Via Satellite editorial board. The winner will be announced during the Via Satellite awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 12, at the SATELLITE 2025 conference in Washington, D.C. Voting is open online from Feb. 18 to 12 p.m. on March 11 and can be accessed at satellitetoday.com/vote. Here are the 2024 Technology of the Year nominees.

Agatha AI — Slingshot Aerospace

What do space overcrowding, debris, anti-satellite satellite weapons, the lack of true global space situations awareness data sharing, and outdated space policy have in common? They all work together to make space an even more dangerous and expensive environment for commercial development than it already is. This is why space-faring nations and investors see Space Situational Awareness (SSA) technologies as a foundational investment – just knowing the extent of risk goes a long way in mitigating risk. This is also why everyone is cheering on companies like Slingshot Aerospace, which are developing valuable tools to protect assets in orbit.

Slingshot Aerospace’s Agatha AI is a groundbreaking system designed to pinpoint even the most subtle spacecraft abnormalities and predict future threats. Developed in partnership with The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Agatha is a unique AI application in the way it “finds a needle in a haystack” — evaluating data from thousands of satellites and providing next-level space domain awareness and insights into potential bad actors. In 2024, the program identified numerous anomalies on satellites operated by space-faring nations like China and Russia, which do not share SSA data with Western-aligned governments due to an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment.

Agatha also represents a step forward in AI technology itself, employing an “inverse reinforcement learning (IRL)” data-agnostic technique that uses AI to evaluate behaviors and identify the policies and intentions of objects it tracks. This allows the AI to answer more strategic questions regarding the specific behaviors and intentions of objects in space, without relying on specific cues. In addition to providing the satellite industry with a significant cost- and asset-saving technology, Slingshot’s Agatha also demonstrates what could be seen as an eye-catching use case for AI in the space industry.

Link 16 in Space — York Space Systems

York Space Systems and the Space Development Agency (SDA) achieved the historic milestone of the first-ever successful space-to-ground transmission on the Link 16 tactical data network within the SDA Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. This milestone has implications for both defense networking and the role space of capabilities to connect ground, air, and sea assets. Link 16 is a tactical datalink communication system that has been in use by the U.S., NATO, and coalition forces for decades in air and ground operations to transmit and exchange real-time situational awareness data. Yet transmission from space had never been achieved until these demonstrations.

York Space Systems integrated Link 16 capabilities into the Tranche 0 satellites the company built for the SDA, which launched in April of 2023. In the first milestone in November 2023, York Space demonstrated a real-time, secure communication using Link 16 directly from the satellite to an aircraft carrier. In further demonstrations, Link 16 established direct network entry with a Navy ship in August of 2024. The SDA called the milestone “a significant new capability for the warfighter” and a “leap ahead in the Department of Defense-wide Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) effort.” Also notable is that York Space Systems achieved this milestone working with the SDA’s accelerated schedule requiring much shorter production times than traditional space missions.

This advancement aligns with the U.S. Space Force’s goals for a flexible, responsive satellite network. The milestone sets the stage for space-based communications to play an even greater role in modern warfare, connecting assets across domains with secure, resilient, and rapid communications.

Mira Orbital Transfer Vehicle — Impulse Space

Impulse Space Founder Tom Mueller rightly deserves credit as one of SpaceX’s two most important employees in its history, right next to Gwynne Shotwell. He designed the Merlin engine that propelled SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket to fame and fortune, along with the Draco, Super Draco and TR-106 rocket engines. Everyone took notice when he left SpaceX to form his own company, Impulse Space, in 2021. It’s no surprise that the result of this action would see Mueller chart a new and exciting course in space transportation.

Impulse Space’s Mira is an orbital transfer and hosting vehicle for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and Cislunar missions. It boasts a high delta-v capability and exceptional control for a wide variety of maneuvers, rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) and space situational awareness (SSA). Mueller and team designed, built, and launched Mira in under 15 months – a staggering pace in spacecraft development that eclipses even his former employer. Mira’s inaugural mission, LEO Express-1, launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-9 in November 2023 and over nine months of active operations, completed all of its primary mission objectives. The mission is considered by many to be the best OTV debut in history, redefining what is possible with a transfer vehicle.

The future space economy that exists in the minds of enthusiasts and investors will not happen without revolutionary cutting-edge rocket and OTV technology. The spacecraft that exist today won’t cut it on its own. With visionaries like Tom Mueller, companies like Impulse Space, and breakthroughs like Mira, we move closer to realizing those dreams.

SIGMA Platform — Speedcast

The value and performance of multi-orbit, multi-network satellite connectivity service is going to depend heavily on ground systems and network hardware. Operators need to prove seamless connectivity between networks, and the ability for satellites in different orbits to handle different tasks at the same time. This is exactly what Speedcast’s SIGMA platform aims to do in the form of a fully-integrated single network management system.

SIGMA runs on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform and is sold to end users across several mobile industries, including commercial and passenger maritime, energy, and remote enterprise operations. SIGMA manages global VSAT and cellular 4G/5G satellite backhaul, L-band transmission paths, and multiple secured wide area network (WAN) links simultaneously and efficiently. It also converges multi-orbit satellite networks with terrestrial fiber, microwave and cellular – into a single, high-performance WAN. SIGMA caught the industry’s attention when Speedcast used the platform to activate Eutelsat OneWeb’s LEO service live in a multi-path environment in Australia and the U.S.

Because of its ability to integrate Starlink with other LEO, GEO and MEO VSAT options, SIGMA puts Speedcast in an advantageous position between competing satellite operators and terrestrial networks, with a diversified customer base, enabling Speedcast to maintain one of the largest connectivity portfolios in the world.

Starlink Internet — SpaceX

Within the span of a single decade, SpaceX rose from a highly scrutinized industry disruptor to the clear and undeniable market leader in both launch services and satellite connectivity. Starlink’s rise to market leadership has been a little under-the-radar, due to the steady hand of SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and her dedication to a business model that works.

According to a recent report published by SpaceX, Starlink activated service in 27 new markets, adding more than 500 million people to its network in 2024 – an almost unfathomable achievement in business development. Starlink also captured one of the largest commercial satellite deals in history with John Deere for smart agriculture services, which other operators are now racing to provide to other farm equipment manufacturers. Starlink scored big wins in in-flight connectivity (IFC) this year with United Airlines and Air France — disrupting a market that’s usually captured by traditional operators. In total, SpaceX installed Starlink service to 450 aircraft across all aviation customer segments and maritime service to more than 75,000 vessels at sea

It is hard to deny Starlink’s success or the fact that it drives nearly all conversation now in the satellite connectivity world. Everyone outside of its tech stack is now a Starlink competitor and its position has forced industry consolidation and collaboration to close the gap.

W-Series Capsule — Varda Space Industries

Varda Space Industries first W-Series capsule mission in 2024 was a notable achievement at the intersection of satellite reentry and in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing, two compelling areas for the future space economy.

In the first mission, the W-1 yoga ball-sized satellite launched in June of 2023 as an in-space pharmaceutical lab. W-1 used the microgravity environment of Low-Earth Orbit to conduct experiments on ritonavir, an HIV/AIDS drug. W-1 was hosted within a Rocket Lab Photon satellite bus, which provided power and communications throughout the mission. After months in orbit, the capsule returned to Earth in February of 2024, surviving speeds over Mach 25 to finish the reentry journey intact, landing in a desert in Utah. It made for incredible photos of the space-weathered capsule back on Earth against the mountainous backdrop. This was the first successful operation and reentry of a commercial satellite dedicated to in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The medical field is seen as a promising customer for the future space economy, and Varda Space Industries is one of the companies leading with the way to credibly service this market with its microgravity pharmaceutical research platform and successful reentry capabilities. W-Series also has implications for hypersonic testing and the company has a contract with the Air Force Research Lab to test military payloads on its reentry capsules. It is such a creative mission combining pharmaceutical testing in space, reentry capabilities, and hypersonic testing. Varda’s W-1 reentry capsule proves that space is not merely a frontier to explore, but can also be a practical resource improving life on Earth. VS