Northwood, Bridgit Mendler's space startup, successfully completes its first test by linking a prototype antenna to Planet satellites.

• Last week, Northwood Space, the startup founded by former television star and singer Bridgit Mendler, successfully passed its first significant development milestone by linking with Planet imagery satellites in orbit.
• Northwood CEO Mendler informed CNBC that they are constructing a global network for satellite data transmission, which utilizes phased array technology that has been successfully validated in both lab and field tests.

Last week, Northwood Space, the startup founded by former television star and singer Bridgit Mendler, successfully completed its first significant development milestone by linking with imagery satellites in orbit.

Northwood CEO Mendler informed CNBC that they are constructing a global network for satellite data transmission, which utilizes phased array technology that has been successfully validated in both lab and field tests.

Northwood, a California-based company, has recently revealed its focus on the ground-based aspect of space connectivity. Ground stations are essential for transmitting data to and from orbit and are particularly critical for managing and controlling satellites.

The company is working on manufacturing mass-produced ground stations and believes its phased array-based system, known as Portal, will surpass the performance of parabolic dish antennas commonly used by ground station companies. The company predicts that Portal will be capable of connecting to up to 10 satellites simultaneously, compared to the typical one to three connections for parabolic dish antennas.

Mendler stated that Northwood aims to establish a new standard for connectivity among businesses.

The Ground Station as a Service market presents an opportunity for companies to manage the Earth-based side of space infrastructure. In response, has introduced its AWS Ground Station service, while Eutelsat has proposed a nearly $1 billion deal in the sector.

Mendler's Northwood aims to advance Ground Station as a Service by eradicating the outdated "connectivity" that is prone to blackouts and exorbitant costs.

Mendler stated that by drawing comparisons to the cellular industry, where vertically integrated players ultimately offloaded and sold their assets to tower companies, we anticipated that the shared model would result in increased efficiency.

In her opinion, ground stations are a crucial component of space technology, alongside rockets and cargo vehicles, as well as satellites and orbital infrastructure.

Mendler stated that the industry is eager for growth, and this presents an opportunity to speed up progress.

North Dakota testing

In remote Maddock, North Dakota, last week, the Northwood team tested its prototype antenna, Frankie, by connecting to a Planet satellite in orbit.

Northwood aims to conduct a TT&C test to make contact with Planet's satellite in both S-band and X-band frequencies.

Mendler stated that we successfully maintained bi-directional communications with Planet's satellites throughout the entire pass and achieved nominal communications for them. As a result, they were able to carry out their operations as if they were operating on their own system.

Northwood successfully constructed Frankie in just four months and completed the antenna deployment process in a record six hours. This achievement was celebrated as a significant milestone by Planet, which has over 150 imagery satellites in orbit.

Northwood has successfully field-tested their phased array antenna faster than previously thought possible, solving historical issues like cost and scale. We're proud to be a part of this breakthrough in ground station technology, as stated by Planet senior director of global ground networks Joseph Breu in a CNBC statement.

The Portal system of Northwood features two antennas, including a larger 5-by-5 foot S-band frequency antenna and a smaller 18-by-18 inch X-band antenna.

Northwood is currently evaluating potential locations for its first Portal sites in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with plans to deploy sites capable of supporting up to 10 simultaneous satellite connections and data rates over 1 gigabit per second per beam, starting next year.

"Mendler stated that we accomplished everything we aimed for in terms of performance, and Northwood is thankful for Planet's involvement and assistance during the test."

Mendler stated that the next chapter would be unlocked by it.