I am pleased to announce that we have had no service disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our network operation capability continues to be strong and robust, and we are continuously supporting more than 50.000 passes per month. Our team of 250 KSAT employees continue to follow local regulations at each of our office locations and we have a strong focus on staying safe.
We have been operating as normal in Tromsø since after the summer holiday and we continue to practice social distancing measures and best practices to ensure team safety. Regulations given by the local and national governments are of course our guidelines. Our Colorado team has been rotating through the office to ensure safe distancing practices in concurrence with the state guidance. All of our teams have been staying productive and maintaining workflow with the use of our well-established systems for calls, instant messaging, and video meetings.
For us at KSAT, we are facilitating a safe and inclusive workplace. While we are limiting travel, we look forward to connecting with you all throughout the various new channels available. That being said, we will look forward to meeting again in person when that becomes possible.
We are continuing with another season of strong growth. Our team has just arrived in Antarctica to begin the summer season of building. This year we are building two antennas bringing the total up to 12 as well as planned maintenance and upgrades. We have amended our typical process to provide further protections for our team traveling to Antarctica, this year receiving shipments directly from Denmark and not processing hardware shipments through South Africa. This changed process has worked well and thank you to the mission teams for smoothly transitioning the shipping logistics accordingly.
Throughout our network we are continuing to build new capabilities and execute planned maintenance activities despite the challenging situation. We have also initiated new initiatives like our support to the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative where we’ll provide mosaics to monitor global deforestation, and our optical ground station will be operational before the end of the year. Right now we are installing our 11m Ka-band system designed to support new NASA missions. During the pandemic we have focused on automation and software-based solutions for our system and new solutions are being implemented as we speak.
As we head into the polar night season in Norway, we are focused on our mission and grateful for the continued growth and good partnership that we have accomplished together. Delivering services has been and will be our main focus.
Stay safe.
Rolf
