Geoscan (satellites)

2025

Possibility of AZN-V signals reception to cubsats from aircraft at low and high altitudes

Geoscan confirmed the possibility of receiving AZN-V signals to cubsats from aircraft at low and high altitudes. The company announced this on October 23, 2025.

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Фото: Geoscan

Kubsat Geoskan-2 continues its targeted work on receiving data packets using automatic dependent monitoring-broadcasting (AZN-B) technology. This experiment showed that a small satellite is able to record signals from manned aircraft at altitudes from 76 to 13100 meters. This confirms the possibility of observing air traffic using cubsats on both small and large echelons.

During regular actuations of the onboard receiver, several hundred messages on each turn of the satellite are received and dropped to the ground station for further analysis. So, on October 10, 2025, 2,203 messages from 114 different aircraft from 32 countries were received and analyzed over 4 rounds. Most of the packages were received during the spacecraft's overflights of Central Africa, Eastern Australia and the Pacific Ocean. The maximum speed of the registered aircraft was 1110 km/h.

We have confirmed the potential of small satellites to monitor aviation on a global scale. In the near future, it is planned to implement the functions of point tracking of specific aircraft and filtering data to optimize the use of satellite resources, as well as the development of technology for receiving signals from drones. The key task will also be to conduct experiments on relaying AZN-V data from a satellite in real time, - commented Alexander Khokhlov, head of the small spacecraft projects department of the Geoskan Group of Companies.

The Geoskan-2 satellite entered orbit on July 25, 2025. Already in August, it began targeted work and became a Russian cubsat that tracks the location, speed and direction of aircraft movement.

Commissioning

The Russian satellite Geoskan-2 has begun targeted work on monitoring the location of unmanned and manned aircraft using automatic dependent surveillance-broadcasting technology. The spacecraft is able to track the coordinates, speed and direction of movement of various types of aircraft in real time. In the first day of payload operation, the satellite recorded more than 850 messages from mainline aircraft in one orbital turn. This became known on August 8, 2025.

According to CNews, in two full turns, the space receiver processed over 1,700 valid messages in an undirected satellite flight. All transmissions came from aircraft located in the radio visibility zone of the AZN-B space receiver at the time of the satellite's passage over the corresponding areas.

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Фото: Freepik

The head of the small spacecraft projects department of the Geoskan Group of Companies, Alexander Khokhlov, noted the positive results of the first activation of the system. According to him, successful tests give confidence in the prospects for the use of AZN-V receivers in small spacecraft and allow us to move on to the next stage of development.

It is planned to conduct experiments to scale the technology and integrate the obtained data into existing air traffic management systems. The next step will be to test the reception of signals directly from transponders installed on unmanned aerial vehicles.

The introduction of a space segment to identify unmanned aircraft systems will complement the air traffic control system with flight information in areas where there is no ground monitoring infrastructure. This is especially true for remote and hard-to-reach territories of Russia.

Geoskan-2 was launched into orbit on July 25, 2025 as a passing payload as part of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle space mission with the Fregat upper stage. The main goal of the launch was to launch Ionosphere-M satellites No. 3-4 to monitor the Earth's ionosphere.^[1]

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