Suborbital Rocket Telemetry & Communication System
Thorium Space Technology
Complete bidirectional S/UHF/L-band telemetry and communication system for suborbital rockets, including conformal wraparound antennas, SDR transceivers, mobile tracking ground station, and LoRa GPS localization.
Technical specifications
- Telemetry downlink band
- S-band
- Telecommand uplink band
- UHF
- GPS receive band
- L-band
- Wraparound Antenna S-Band TRL
- V
- Wraparound Antenna L-Band TRL
- V
- Wraparound Antenna UHF TRL
- V
- SDR Transceiver (rocket) TRL
- V
- SDR Transceiver (ground) TRL
- V
- Mobile Ground Station TRL
- IV
- LoRa GPS Localization System TRL
- V
- Ground station tracking
- Automated active tracking
- Ground station type
- Mobile
- Communication type
- Bidirectional (full duplex)
- Application
- Suborbital rockets
- Reference rocket
- ILR-33 Bursztyn 2K
About
Thorium Space has developed a complete bidirectional communication and telemetry system linking a mobile ground station with a suborbital rocket across all phases of flight. The system covers uplink telecommand (UHF band), downlink telemetry (S band), and GPS positioning (L band) using conformal wraparound antennas that mount directly to the rocket body with minimal aerodynamic impact. The system was developed under the SUBCOM project for the ILR-33 Bursztyn 2K suborbital rocket.
The rocket-side hardware includes three wraparound antennas — S-band for telemetry TX to ground, L-band for GPS signal RX, and UHF for telecommand RX — plus an integrated SDR transceiver module compatible with both the S-band and UHF antennas. All rocket-mounted components have achieved TRL V. The mobile ground station (TRL IV) comprises an S-band directional antenna, UHF antenna, SDR transceiver module, and an automated tracking mechanism that keeps the antenna pointed at the rocket throughout its trajectory.
A supplementary LoRa GPS localization system (TRL V) provides independent TX/RX devices for locating separated rocket sections or payloads during and after flight. The complete system is designed for rapid field deployment. The SUBCOM project is co-funded through the EU FENG 2021–2027 program with total support exceeding 22.6M EUR.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.