The company flying spacecraft from its Mission Control in Adelaide’s CBD

Streaking overhead is a rapidly growing constellation of satellites whose planetary orbit silently influences our daily life.

Whether it’s helping us navigate unfamiliar roads, helping us decide if we should pack an umbrella or yielding more insights about the natural world around us – there’s a satellite for that.

And with more than 10,000 satellites operating and nearly 80,000 new satellites predicted to be launched by 2032 – how do you safely launch your spacecraft and keep it airborne?

Meet global space operations provider, Saber Astronautics, who are flying and monitoring spacecraft from Lot Fourteen and supporting mission development from concept to execution.

Founded in 2008, Saber established its Adelaide operations in 2020 and describes its mission as the democratisation of space.

Central to Saber’s capabilities is the operation of the Responsive Space Operations Centre (RSOC) within the Australian Space Discovery Centre at Lot Fourteen.

Opened in 2021, this mission control centre combines space domain awareness, command and control, and space weather into a single operational solution for private and public customers.

With the RSOC program, Australian companies can design and fly their missions from one place providing them access to the program’s advanced operational capabilities.

Saber’s RSOC supports satellites from CubeSats through to the world’s largest commercial low-orbit communication satellites.

Satellites the size of tennis courts

Measuring about the size of a tennis court, each of the five satellites, launched in September 2024, will deliver the first and only spacebased cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones.

There’s a good chance you’ll see them in the night sky as their 60sqm antennae when deployed shine brighter than most of the brightest stars in the solar system.

“These satellites will act as cell phone towers in space and transmit 4G and 5G to your phone without any upgrade to your hardware, that is revolutionary,” Dr Alexander Green, National Director – Saber Astronautics Australia said.

“Effectively you’ll have cell phone coverage around the world, even in the middle of the ocean, once the full constellation is in operation.”

With an RSOC also located in Boulder, Colorado, and a satellite dish network of more than 200 in its network, Saber provides a global “follow-the-sun” service for satellites.

“We use our spacecraft operations centre for two main purposes: supporting our customers as we plan and operate their space missions, and monitoring the entire catalogue of space objects orbiting earth to protect our customers assets, which is known as Space Traffic Management,” Dr Green says.

Video-game-like interface

Saber’s mission is the democratisation of space, reducing barriers to flight and “making space as easy as driving a car.”

Key to that mission is their space operation software PIGI, or the Predictive Interactive Ground-station Interface, which uses a videogame-like interface, that is easy to learn but powerful enough to provide operators with all the real-time data to run a mission.

It represents a fusion of the latest techniques in human factors, artificial intelligence and dynamic 3D data visualisation, making it easy for spacecraft operators to monitor, fly and rapidly diagnose faults in spacecraft systems.

“It drastically reduces the months long process of training an operator to command a spacecraft, using similar principles as you would have when learning to play a video game,” Dr Green says.

“The software has drastically reduced barriers to entry for operating spacecraft; operators can open up the browser and use the same tool that is also used by the US Space Force.”

Taking the ‘night shift’

Saber has been a long-term partner of the US Space Force with the Adelaide team providing ‘night shift’ space traffic management and mission assurance services when their northern hemisphere counterparts in Boulder, Colorado are asleep.

With the rapid growth of the space industry and space flight, Saber secured a $1.25 million grant from US Space Force in January 2025 to develop tools to automate space operations and
enhance risk-mitigation of objects in orbit.

Codenamed ‘Windu’, this ‘Digital Guardian’ will use automation and machine learning to automate the processes of gathering evidence of important events that can affect flight safety, greatly increasing the output of individual human operators through the press of a button.

“The number of objects in the sky is increasing rapidly, both space junk and active satellites. We need to monitor every object and predict their movements far into the future. We also need to automatically detect and then report bad actors, of which Saber is at the forefront with both Windu and existing tools,” Dr Green says.

Designing missions and spacecraft

In addition to its focus on Satellite Operations and Space Traffic Management, Saber also supports its customers in designing their missions and spacecraft using Saber’s Mission Forge program.

“This is about taking complex design ideas and testing them in a simulated space environment where users can create constellations and mission paraments and we can produce a report sent straight to the clients’ inbox,” Dr Green says.

Clients and government agencies can access Saber’s software development and spacecraft design facilities at their Adelaide HQ at Lot Fourteen. “This year is a year for growth for Saber, we’ve been bootstrapped, and we’re looking to change that this year and grow the business,” Dr Green says.

“We need a lot more staff to service a fast-growing sector and to build all the cool things we have been dreaming about for years.

“Being based at Lot Fourteen is great as we have direct access to the Australian Space Agency, the Bureau of Meteorology and the facilities are top notch and easy to get to.”

Dr Green acknowledged the work of outgoing national director, and predecessor Andreas Antoniades, and well-known and regarded face around Lot Fourteen, stating that, “he has been integral in helping establish and grow Saber Astronautics’ Australian operations.”