Orbit:Linx

Orbit:Linx was a UK satellite ground station services platform developed as a joint venture between Spacebit, a UK space company, and Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, announced in August 2018. The platform was designed to create a decentralized global satellite ground communications ecosystem by enabling satellite operators to schedule and book ground station downlink time through a blockchain-based smart contract system using the EOS distributed ledger. The LinkX product automated downlink scheduling across global antenna networks and allowed ground station operators to monetize idle antenna capacity by offering it to satellite operators on a pay-per-use basis, using smart contracts to handle booking, service delivery, and payment. Orbit:Linx was endorsed by ESA's Business Incubation Centre framework and represented an early attempt to apply distributed ledger technology to ground segment resource sharing in the satellite industry. The platform did not reach sustained commercial operations and the service became inactive by late 2022, with its website subsequently going offline.