Infostellar, a Ground-Segment-as-a-Service (GSaaS) provider, recently achieved the approval of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) for uplink services from it’s Taiki Japan ground station in support of Planet Labs PBC satellite and imagery operations.
The approval of MIC for satellite uplink services for Planet from Taiki is especially noteworthy because it represents the company’s first success in gaining regulatory approval for a non-Japanese satellite operator for services in Japan.
In addition to the Planet operation in Taiki, Infostellar is also the provider of GSaaS services from a network of stations that include Viasat RTE, Amazon Web Services (AWS-GS), and other ground stations. Infostellar also provides a portfolio of technical services to complement its GSaaS and hosting businesses.
“Since its inception in 2016, Infostellar has had a global vision with an expectation that our company would be a catalyst for non-Japanese satellite operations within Japan. Our ground station hosting site in Taiki has already attracted several key Earth Observation and Satellite Communications players that require services in the Asia-Pacific region. We are, of course, very proud of this recent accomplishment and look forward to continued expansion of global operations from our Japanese base of operations. Infostellar’s team in the U.S. and Japan collaborated extremely well with Planet personnel in implementing the ground station location, together building a world class uplink/downlink capability which is now approved by MIC for commercial operations.” — Naomi Kurahara, CEO, Infostellar
“I am very, very pleased with this recent approval by MIC. They have been very cooperative with Infostellar while we navigated the complex environment of frequency coordination for Planet’s operation. Without MIC’s willingness to engage with us to add uplink parameters that have not previously been considered by MIC, we would not have been successful. My thanks and appreciation go to the MIC team members that ensured we were diligent and continued to make progress throughout the application process.” — Toshio Totsuka, Founder and Lead Technologist, Infostellar
“Our driving mission is to connect Earth and Space to empower the future, and our vision is to be the most effective enabler of space business by providing the best access to satellite services. Together with Planet, Infostellar has proven to the world that its driving mission is indeed our focus. We will continue to drive global expansion for U.S. and other non-Japanese satellite operators in APAC and around the world.” — Tom Pirrone, Infostellar Corporate CSO and U.S. subsidiary CEO
