Credit: NSSA – Radio Astronomical Observatory, Svetloe – Russia

A ground station is a radio station, located on the surface of the earth (land or sea) or in its atmosphere, designed to communicate (transmit and receive signals) with spacecrafts (e.g. satellites) in orbit.

Ground station segments: includes hardware and software for tracking and communicating with one or multiple satellites for receiving space signals for further data analysis depending on its purpose.

Hardware may include include VHF/UHF or S-band antenna(s) and transceiver(s) for downloading data and uploading commands.

The ground station subsystems include transmit and receive antennas, software and a transceiver to transmit and receive data.

Conventional ground stations are immobile, however, there are some mobile stations which are considered beneficial for accessing the satellite at different points on earth.