Satellite operators are increasingly looking north. Far north. As the US, China and other powers intensify their competition in space, the need for fast, frequent contact with satellites in polar orbit is turning Arctic ground stations into highly strategic assets.
One of the more unlikely outposts in this new “polar space race” is Deadhorse, Alaska. This remote settlement on the North Slope tundra, about 1,350 km north of Anchorage by road, serves as the gateway to the Prudhoe Bay oil field. It has almost everything needed to support fossil fuel extraction: prefab dorms for workers and a store that sells bear spray. It has no hospital, bank or school.
But it does have something satellite companies desperately need: fiber-optic connectivity.
“You can only put satellite antennas where you have fiber,” said Christopher Richins, founder of RBC Signals LLC, which operates eight antennas in Deadhorse. “Otherwise, the data gets stranded — there’s nowhere for it to go.”
More antennas, more cables, more Arctic capacity
Demand is rising across the Arctic region.
“We’re going to see more ground stations, more antennas on existing sites, more cables to provide redundancy,” said Michael Byers, a professor at the University of British Columbia who researches space and Arctic sovereignty.
Climate change is opening Arctic waters to more shipping and raising the region’s strategic value. A Chinese shipping company is planning regular summer routes across the Arctic Ocean to Europe as part of its “Polar Silk Road” plans. According to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, China has also significantly increased its number of polar-orbit satellites.
The US is responding as well. The Golden Dome missile-defense concept proposed under President Donald Trump would almost certainly include satellites focused on the Arctic. The Pentagon is already awarding major contracts for work in the region:
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In 2024, Northrop Grumman announced Arctic payloads for the US Space Force and secured a contract worth more than $4.1 billion to build two polar-orbit satellites by 2031.
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In July, Boeing won a $2.8 billion contract for two satellites, plus options for two more, under a $12 billion program that the Space Systems Command says will include “enhanced capabilities in the Arctic”.
Why polar orbits — and the North — matter so much
“The advantage of a polar orbit is that you pass over every point on Earth,” said David Marsh, founder of Washington-based consultancy Space For Earth and an Arctic expert. “The whole planet rotates underneath you as you orbit.”
If China or Russia launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, their trajectories typically arc over the North Pole.
“It’s crucial to have a lot of sensors watching that region — and sensors that can send data quickly,” said Pierre Leblanc, a retired colonel who once commanded Canada’s armed forces in the Arctic.
Svalbard: ideal location, political limits
The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard (Spitsbergen) is the closest sizeable community to the North Pole with a subsea cable linking it to mainland Norway, a NATO member. It hosts Svalsat, the world’s largest polar-orbit ground station.
But Svalbard is constrained by law:
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The 1920 Svalbard Treaty recognizes Norwegian sovereignty but bans the use of the archipelago for “warlike purposes.”
“That means data cannot be downloaded for direct military use,” said Ole Kokkvig, director of Svalsat.
There are also growing concerns about the vulnerability of undersea cables. In 2022, Space Norway’s link between Svalbard and the mainland suffered an outage, and suspected saboteurs damaged data cables in the Baltic Sea.
Looking for alternatives: Sweden, Canada, Greenland
These risks are driving demand for alternative Arctic locations.
“Being on a remote island carries risks, especially if submarines and ships are operating nearby,” said Fredrik Schedder, business development director at Arctic Space Technologies AB.
In 2022, the company installed its first antenna near Piteå, Sweden. Now the site hosts around 35 antennas, with plans to expand to 40 next year. Clients include government users and major operators such as Viasat Inc. and Eutelsat Communications.
Eutelsat, which operates a broadband constellation competing with Elon Musk’s Starlink, last year opened a ground station in Yellowknife, capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, together with Swedish Space Corp. and local partner Northwestel.
Another hotspot is Inuvik, a town of roughly 3,300 people in the Northwest Territories. It hosts:
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Canadian government ground stations, and
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a site run by Norway’s Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT).
Users include the governments of France, Germany and Sweden. This year the Inuvik station added five more antennas, bringing the total to around 13.
“Canada is putting up another antenna because the… ‘dish is full,’” said Mayor Peter Clarkson. “Then the Swedes added one more. Same story: their customer base is growing.”
C-Core, which operates another station in Inuvik, announced expansion plans in October as the federal government seeks to reduce its reliance on US infrastructure.
“We’ll be serving Canadian missions for Canadians,” said Desmond Power, C-Core’s VP for remote sensing.
At the same time, local ISP New North Networks, run by Inuvik entrepreneur Tom Zubko, has bought land for yet another ground station.
“Chinese satellites pass over us roughly every hour,” he said. “Russian satellites do the same.”
Further east, increased orbital activity has boosted the importance of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, used by the US Space Force for satellite monitoring. US Vice President J.D. Vance visited in March, arguing that Denmark hasn’t invested enough in the island’s security — a place former President Trump once suggested the US should buy.
Yet, like Svalbard, Greenland depends on subsea cables and is not US sovereign territory.
“You need a reliable, modern presence on US Arctic soil,” said Elizabeth Buchanan, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, pointing to infrastructure developed under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
One such US asset is Clear Space Force Station, about 130 km southwest of Fairbanks. In June, the Space Force, Missile Defense Agency and US Northern Command used Clear to test systems for tracking intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Deadhorse growth: more antennas, more customers
Anticipating more demand, RBC Signals plans to expand in Deadhorse. Richins notes that Amazon Web Services (AWS) also operates a facility there as part of its global ground station network.
RBC’s customers include the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Space Development Agency. The company started with one antenna mounted on the roof of the area’s only hotel; its newest is a 3.9-meter dish commissioned last year.
“In the far north, you can see the same satellite more than 14 times a day,” Richins said. “At mid-latitudes, you might see it only about four times.”
Building in permafrost – and with bears
Constructing and operating stations in the Arctic brings unique engineering and wildlife challenges.
To shield sensitive hardware from snow and high winds:
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antennas are enclosed in radome-like domes,
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domes sit on heated platforms,
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structures are anchored by steel piles driven around 14 meters into the ground to prevent movement as permafrost thaws.
There are also more immediate hazards. During construction in 2018, staff arrived one morning to see a grizzly bear walking out of a partially built structure.
Since then, the company has installed a locking door, a chain-link fence and barbed wire to keep uninvited visitors out.
Inter-satellite links: threat or complement to Arctic sites?
A potential long-term challenge to Arctic ground stations is the rise of inter-satellite links — laser or radio connections that allow satellites to pass data between themselves in orbit before sending it down to Earth.
“Suddenly it may not seem so essential to have remote ground stations if you have enough satellites relaying data to each other,” said Desmond Power of C-Core.
Even so, Arctic outposts are unlikely to become obsolete, argues Marsh of Space for Earth:
“Even with very powerful inter-satellite laser links, total bandwidth is still limited. It’s still better to have a big, old-fashioned antenna and a good fiber-optic cable, and not worry about how much data you’re trying to move.”
For now, the Arctic looks set to remain a key node in the global satellite infrastructure — and a quiet, but fiercely contested, theatre in the broader competition for space dominance.
