SATShow Week 2026 brought the entire satellite and space industry together at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. Over 15,000 professionals from more than 110 countries, all in the same place. Researchers, engineers, mission operators, system integrators, government stakeholders. It is where the space economy comes to do business. And it is where PL-GSS, the Prima Luce Ground Segment System, made its international debut.
Watch the video from the booth
We recorded a video directly from the stand, before the show floor opened. Filippo Bradaschia, President and CEO of PrimaLuceLab, and Enrico Vazzoler, Chief Software Projects Officer, walk through what PL-GSS is, what we were showing at the booth, and what the live demo looked like in practice.
Why we chose SATShow
Choosing SATShow as the stage for the PL-GSS debut was a deliberate decision. The satellite industry is evolving fast. More missions, more operators, more need for independent, affordable, mission-ready ground infrastructure. SATShow is where those conversations happen. It is where the people who need what we have built come to find solutions. We came to Washington not to announce a product on paper. We came to show it operating, live, in front of the people who matter most: the teams building and operating space missions around the world.
What we showed at the booth
At the PrimaLuceSpace booth, visitors could see PL-GSS in operation. Not a slide deck. Not a rendered animation. A real system, running live. From Washington DC, our team connected remotely to the INTREPID 500-20 radio ground station installed at the PL Space Center in Italy, over 7,000 kilometers away. Using our Radio2Space software, we tracked satellites in real time, monitored antenna coordinates, signal spectra and system parameters, all from a single computer on the show floor. This is what PL-GSS means in practice. You do not need to be physically present at the ground station to operate it. You do not need a large team of engineers to keep it running. You connect, you track, you receive. The system handles the complexity. You focus on the mission.
A platform, not just a product
What we presented at SATShow is not a collection of individual components. PL-GSS is a complete platform for radio and optical ground stations, designed to act as a mission-ready foundation. It includes the mechanical, electromechanical and software infrastructure needed to point, track, automate and remotely operate a ground station from day one. The mission-specific elements, RF chains, optical tubes, sensors and receivers, remain in the hands of the mission team. That is intentional. PL-GSS handles what is hardest to get right. Teams keep full control over what is most specific to their mission. The result is an independent ground segment. One that you own, operate and evolve over time. Not a service you depend on. Not a closed system you cannot extend. A strategic asset.
What the response at the show confirmed
The conversations at SATShow confirmed something we already believed: the ground segment is one of the most underestimated challenges in space mission planning. Many teams find themselves operating infrastructure they do not fully control, integrated from different vendors at different times, difficult to automate and expensive to evolve. PL-GSS was designed to solve exactly this problem, and the interest we received at the show confirmed that this challenge is real, widespread and ready to be addressed. We are grateful to ITA, the Italian Trade Agency, for supporting our presence at SATShow Week 2026 and for contributing to the visibility of Italian space technology on the international stage.
Start a conversation about your ground segment
If you are building or evolving a space mission and want to understand whether PL-GSS is the right foundation for your ground segment, we are ready to talk. Describe your mission, your constraints, and where you want to go. We will help you understand what is possible.
