everything RF recently interviewed Thomas H. Hand and Cody Vaudrin from CesiumAstro. Thomas is an inventor and currently an antenna systems architect at CesiumAstro and Cody is a Research Scientist at CesiumAstro focused on communications and radar. Thomas earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and holds B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics from Florida Institute of Technology. Cody earned a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences (radar remote sensing and instrument design focus) and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Valparaiso University.
Q. Could you give us a brief background on CesiumAstro and the vision behind its inception? When was the company founded, and how has it evolved over the years?
Thomas and Cody: CesiumAstro was founded in 2017 to make communications faster and more reliable, and at a lower cost to the customer. Our approach is straightforward: leverage active electronically steered arrays (AESAs), software-defined radios, and onboard computing, and take ownership of the complex electronics tying it all together. We design, build, and test hardware and software products in-house. Today, we deliver innovative software, modules, turn-key communications systems, and our mission-ready satellite.
Q. CesiumAstro describes itself as a “full stack” communications company. Could you walk us through your core product portfolio and tell us about the services you provide?
Thomas and Cody: “Full stack” means customers can get what they need, from antennas to software, in one turn-key solution:
- Space payloads: On-satellite communications payloads that create single or multiple, steerable beams for high-throughput data links.
- User terminals: SATCOM terminals for aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles that keep multiple connections live, whether in motion or fixed.
- Radios and processing: Flight-proven software-defined radios (SDRs) and on-board computers that handle signal processing and data routing.
- Satellites: A mission-ready satellite platform that natively integrates our active, single- and multi-beam AESAs to speed up time to orbit and reduce cost.
Q. Could you tell us about your SDR portfolio, the key RF performance metrics you prioritize - such as noise figure, linearity, and EVM—and what makes these designs unique or challenging to qualify for space applications?
Thomas and Cody: Our SDR portfolio is FPGA-based and built with commercial off-the-shelf components, designed for wideband, multi-channel, high-throughput applications. Representative bandwidths span ~100 MHz to ~1 GHz, with form factors from credit-card-sized modules to 3U SpaceVPX for chassis integration. We optimize for mission value—cost-to-performance and schedule—by balancing low noise, linearity under multi-carrier load, modulation fidelity (EVM), phase-noise/jitter, DC power, and deterministic, phase-coherent timing so concurrent links and beams stay in sync. In our Vireo phased-array payloads, a key outcome metric is how many truly simultaneous beams the system sustains under load—because concurrency drives user capacity and resilience. By co-designing radios, arrays, and onboard compute, we stay SWaP-competitive and hit predictable schedules. What’s unique is the tight coupling to calibration/telemetry (factory and on-orbit), DPD/crest-factor management, and hardware-in-the-loop testing that mirrors flight timing. Space qualification adds radiation, thermal cycling, vibration, and EMI/EMC constraints, which we address with careful part selection and architectural safeguards (e.g., TMR/EDAC/watchdogs) to deliver flight-ready performance.
SDR-1001 Software-Defined Radio from CesiumAstro
Q. CesiumAstro leverages digital, analog, and hybrid beamforming across its phased-array platforms. How do you determine the optimal architecture for each mission, and what innovations or trends are guiding your approach to wideband, multi-function array design?
Thomas and Cody: On the systems we’re fielding today, we always trade analog/RF vs element-level digital vs hybrid beamforming to meet aggressive SWaP requirements and reliability goals, while covering the beam-bandwidth requirement of the mission at hand. As beam count demands increase, the routing complexity pushes you toward more-digital partitions; As element count rises, the DC power associated with RF sampling often becomes the limiting factor. We manage this trade by maximizing modularity, scalability, and re-usability on all layers (e.g., antenna element layouts scalable across frequency; array controllers scalable across a wide range of aperture sizes and frequency counts; software/firmware modules deployable on all targets), keeping design cycles as simple and short as possible while maintaining robustness and manufacturability. In parallel, our advanced projects team is actively maturing hybrid and fully digital beamformed architectures for higher concurrency and wider bandwidths. Two innovations are bending the curve: AI-class processing cores that offload large linear-algebra workloads (beamforming/equalization, long-tap FIR) from FPGA fabric for more efficient, deterministic execution, and direct-RF sampling devices that collapse frequency-conversion stages—reducing parts count, calibration burden, and overall SWaP. Net: for many applications, analog beamforming meets the requirements with lower SWaP and higher reliability; hybrid/digital for missions that justify added per-beam agility—on a common timing and calibration backbone so the system stays coherent.
Q. What is Skylark? Can you tell us about the product and use cases? What makes this SATCOM Terminal different from other solutions in the market?
Thomas and Cody: Skylark is a software-defined SATCOM terminal developed by CesiumAstro. It supports real-time analog beamforming, true concurrent multi-beam operation (not time-switched), and multi-orbit/multi-constellation connectivity, and it’s modular by design to scale across aircraft sizes and mission profiles. The same architecture also scales to fixed ground terminals, giving operators a common hardware/software stack across air and ground. In parallel, we’re scaling operations and production to deliver at prime-contractor quality and volumes, enabling the highest throughput per unit area available today.
Skylark Ka-Band SATCOM Terminal
Q. CesiumAstro serves both commercial and government programs across commercial constellations, defense constellations, airborne applications, and deep-space missions. Which of these markets are currently driving the most innovation and demand for your RF systems?
Thomas and Cody: Proliferated constellations—commercial and defense—are driving the most innovation. Customers want higher-throughput payloads, dynamic beam allocation with frequency reuse, and network-aware routing so data takes the fastest path across the constellation. That’s where we’re focusing: multi-beam capacity, on-orbit flexibility, and interfaces that let the network move traffic efficiently.
Q. What is Element? How is it redefining mission-ready satellites with advanced, adaptable technology?
Thomas and Cody: Element is CesiumAstro’s satellite platform: a pre-integrated spacecraft built around our phased-array communications payloads, with radios, onboard compute, power/thermal management, TT&C, and avionics already aligned. It’s designed to be configured quickly for different missions, with open interfaces and on-orbit reprogrammability to reduce integration risk and shorten time to flight.
Element Fully Integrated LEO Satellite
Satellites have long development and delivery cycles because each mission is unique. Each unique mission requires a unique payload. Engineering for space normally demands heavy optimization—the opposite of flexibility. It means you can’t design a satellite until you know what payloads it needs to fly, and you can’t know what payloads you need to fly until you get agreement from a customer on how a particular problem is going to be solved. And then you start solving all the problems that come with advanced technology development and manufacturing. The key to CesiumAstro is the flexibility and scalability of our phased-array payloads. The payloads are flexible enough to adapt on the fly, address multiple missions, and even alternate between being communications and sensor payloads. We can optimize Element around our own payloads in ways that no one else can because no one else is solely focused on flying our phased arrays. Because it is designed and optimized around our payloads, Element can get ahead of the cycle and be produced at scale, mission-ready.
Q. As missions extend toward the Moon, Mars, and deep space, what unique RF payload challenges do you anticipate, and how is CesiumAstro preparing to meet them?
Thomas and Cody: Lunar RF links will require robust Doppler tracking and spectral flexibility. For example, a desirable SDR capability is the ability to autonomously monitor and adapt to changing or unanticipated EM conditions (interference, jamming, etc). Given the longer periods between operator intervention, lunar systems will require higher levels of onboard compute and intelligence to make autonomous decisions regarding link parameters. Given the high Earth-Lunar distance (~380,000 km), high-gain directional antennas such as CesiumAstro’s ESAS, along with low noise figure receivers with advanced forward error correction, will be required for next-generation Lunar comms.
Q. What’s next for CesiumAstro? Are there upcoming missions, partnerships, or product lines that will expand your role in the RF communications ecosystem?
Thomas and Cody: From a production standpoint, we’re focused on program deliveries and a few near-term milestones: the upcoming product launch of our direct-sampling SDR, the Element-1 mission and follow-on satellites, and a series of Skylark demonstrations across air, ground, and maritime.
CesiumAstro maintains a very robust R&D program, the Advanced Projects Group (APG). APG is composed of technical experts in space-based high-performance computing; electromagnetics; antenna design; RF propagation; theoretical and applied communications; astrodynamics; AI/ML; and data science. Members of the APG team are recognized as world experts in various fields with backgrounds rooted in JPL/NASA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, and NIST. APG members are tasked with evaluating and pathfinding emerging state-of-the-art technologies for integration into our production environment. Currently, APG is focused on delivering prototypes for improved space vehicle GNC and autonomous orbit determination architectures through leveraging the newly available onboard high-performance computing capabilities (AMD Versal platform) with resilience in GPS-/GNSS-denied environments. In addition, APG is exploring how physics-informed convolutional neural networks (PINNs) can be leveraged to dramatically improve real-time space situational awareness capabilities.
About the Company:
CesiumAstro builds high-throughput, software-defined phased array communications payloads for airborne and space platforms, including satellites, missiles, UAVs, and more. Their full-stack, multi-mission hardware and software solutions enable a range of commercial, government, and defense objectives. CesiumAstro provides full in-house design, manufacturing, and testing capabilities based on the AS9100 standard.
