SpaceLink

SpaceLink Corporation, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a U.S. commercial space startup developing a medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite relay network designed to provide continuous, high-bandwidth data relay services for low Earth orbit satellites, spacecraft, and crewed missions — eliminating the intermittent contact problem that limits LEO satellite operations to brief ground station passes of typically 10-15 minutes per orbit.

Founded in 2020 and established by a leadership team with backgrounds from NASA, SES, and Lockheed Martin, SpaceLink's architecture positions relay satellites in highly elliptical or MEO orbits that provide permanent line-of-sight coverage to LEO spacecraft below. This mirrors NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system — which has provided continuous communications for the Space Shuttle, ISS, Hubble, and other NASA spacecraft since 1983 — but as a commercial service available to any LEO operator rather than exclusively for NASA missions.

LEO satellites using SpaceLink relay can transmit data continuously rather than storing it onboard until the next ground station overfly, dramatically increasing data collection throughput for Earth observation satellites and reducing latency for real-time data delivery.

SpaceLink targets the growing commercial Earth observation market — where Planet, Maxar, BlackSky, Capella Space, and other operators manage large LEO constellations that collectively generate far more imagery data than can be downlinked during available ground contact windows — as well as government intelligence satellite operators, crewed commercial space stations, and in-orbit servicing missions that require real-time telemetry and command uplinks.

The company has received FCC authorization for its proposed MEO relay system and has been selected for contracts with the U.S. Air Force and Space Force under programs evaluating commercial communications relay alternatives to extend TDRS coverage and reduce dependence on the aging government network. SpaceLink competes with Amazon's AWS Ground Station services (cloud-connected ground stations), Inmarsat's ELERA network for LEO relay, and KSAT's global ground station network in addressing the LEO connectivity gap.