Harris Corp. tapping into satellite market

Harris Corporation’s pivot to the growing small satellite market is paying off.

The Melbourne-based company has successfully launched and communicated with its first small satellite — called HSAT for Harris small satellite — which is currently in low Earth orbit after launching from India on Nov. 28.

The small, briefcase-sized cubesat is designed to offer high-speed satellite communications for defense and commercial customers. It’ll be operated from Harris’ satellite operations center and ground station in Palm Bay, according to a news release.

Harris, which has a long legacy of working on satellite technology as a prime contractor, developed its own small satellite “as an internal research and development initiative, with the goal of publicly demonstrating our capabilities to deliver smallsat missions and reduce risk for our customers planning smallsat missions,” the company said on its website.

Harris told Space News in 2017 that it was increasingly turning to smallsats “because that’s where the market is.” It has since beefed up its Space and Intelligence Systems unit from 50 employees in 2016 to 300 to support smallsat and payload development.