Hosted payload

A hosted payload is a module attached to a commercial satellite with communications circuitry that operates independently of the main spacecraft but which shares the satellite’s power supply and transponders. The concept has been also been referred to as “piggybacking” or “hitchhiking.”

Hosted payloads are used most often by government agencies seeking to have communications capability in orbit without having to pay the cost of building and launching an entire government-owned satellite. Using a hosted payload on a commercial satellite can reduce both the expense and time required to get communications capacity into space. However, because some government agencies desire to own and control entire satellite platforms, hosted payloads have not been widely accepted by government space planners, despite the fact that a large proportion of government satellite communications is over commercially owned and operated satellites. For example, according to Space Commerce, over 80% of all U.S. government and military satellite communications goes through commercial services. Hosted payloads give government agencies the ability to own and control a portion of a satellite’s capacity. In 2007, the US Department of Defense projected that satellite demand for the next 10–13 years would increase much more rapidly than the government could build and launch its own satellite systems, making hosted payloads on commercial satellites an attractive alternative.

Hosted payloads are perfect for a variety of missions. These include Space Situational Awareness (SSA) such as collision avoidance, debris monitoring, nuclear detection and still imagery; and data collection for hyper-spectral sounding, ocean color analysis, ozone mapping, and weather tracking; as well as communications; and research and development.

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