Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Jakub Lajmon, Co-Founder & CEO of Groundcom, to discuss scalable ground-station infrastructure. Groundcom manufactures and operates globally distributed ground stations designed to give satellite operators more frequent access to spacecraft and faster delivery of orbital data. The company combines its own antenna hardware with cloud-based network orchestration and also supplies dedicated ground-station infrastructure to customers building their own networks.
00:00 – Introduction and Groundcom’s role in satellite connectivity
02:33 – Jakub’s software background and path into the space industry
05:16 – How satellite operators plan and secure ground-station access
09:01 – Ground-station architecture, global coverage, and remote operation
12:14 – Capacity limits, parabolic dishes, and phased-array technology
15:15 – Founding Groundcom during COVID and validating the market
17:48 – Scaling ground infrastructure alongside growing LEO constellations
22:18 – Hardware design for higher data rates and evolving mission requirements
24:35 – Space-based data centers, optical communications, and RF redundancy
28:37 – Groundcom’s position within the changing European space market
30:20 – Designing autonomous ground stations for rapid deployment
34:05 – Operational challenges, recurring revenue, and building the team
37:42 – Europe’s startup ecosystem and the importance of speed and iteration
40:46 – Sovereignty, global infrastructure, licensing, and regional partnerships
44:27 – Investor and customer misconceptions about ground-station networks
48:18 – Closing thoughts on speed, agility, and continuous iteration
