TRAVERSE CITY — ATLAS Space Operations has finalized an agreement with the Port Administration of American Samoa to host a new satellite ground station. The Traverse City-based company will install advanced satellite tracking antenna systems to support global data networks.
The new station will fill a critical coverage gap in the South Pacific, providing near-real-time data for federal and commercial missions. This facility connects American Samoa to an existing network of ground stations located in Hawaii, Guam and Australia.
The facility will serve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. military and commercial remote sensing missions.
Kristen Rice serves as the vice president and general manager of ATLAS Space Operations. Rice explained that the location is vital for maintaining situational awareness and reducing delays in communication.
“In getting the data down from the images that they collect, for the weather, awareness is very important for everybody,” Rice said. “And so this location is important specifically for that, but it does provide us access to all of our other customers. Again, to minimize the latency between contacts of other ground stations that we have around the world.”
Work on the facility began on March 2. The project includes construction of the antenna foundation and various upgrades to the data facility. The building phase has created 10 to 15 temporary jobs in the region.
Once the station is operational, it is expected to provide five to 10 permanent jobs. The site will facilitate the collection of images and data used for weather monitoring and other remote sensing applications.
Construction on the antenna foundation and data facility is scheduled to be complete in June.