GEORIX Receiver from Beyond Gravity to Launch in 2023

A geostationary navigation receiver called GEORIX developed by Beyond Gravity precisely determines a satellite’s position in orbit has been installed on the Intelsat-40e geostationary communications satellite by Maxar.

“The more precisely the position that NASA’s TEMPO can be determined by GEORIX, the more precise the climate data TEMPO can provide.”

Anders Linder, Beyond Gravity EVP Division Satellites.

The GEORIX receiver and an antenna were delivered to Maxar in 2021. Intelsat-40e is hosting NASA's climate payload called Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO). GEORIX will help TEMPO determine where it is in orbit as it measures atmospheric gases - including ozone, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, and aerosols - over North America. Data collected by TEMPO will help improve air quality forecasting.

GEORIX Will Help Provide More Precise Climate Data

“This will be the first time that a Beyond Gravity navigation receiver will fly in geostationary orbit, around 36,000 kilometers (22,3000 miles) away from Earth,” said Anders Linder, EVP Division Satellites at Beyond Gravity. “The more precisely the position that NASA’s TEMPO can be determined by GEORIX, the more precise the climate data TEMPO can provide.” Currently, around 30 navigation receivers from Beyond Gravity determine the position of satellites in low-Earth orbit (about 2’000 kilometers from Earth).

Intelsat-40e and TEMPO will launch in early 2023 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

TEMPO is a UV-visible spectrometer that will detect pollutants by measuring sunlight reflected and scattered from the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The resulting data from TEMPO will be used to enhance air-quality forecasts in North America, enabling the more effective early public warning of pollution incidents. TEMPO is a collaborative effort between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. TEMPO will deliver near-real-time air quality products to improve air quality forecasting. Rather than build a dedicated spacecraft to host the Ball Aerospace-built payload, NASA in 2019 partnered with Maxar to host it on Intelsat 40e (IS-40e).

(Images provided with Beyond Gravity news release)