The era of huge, expensive satellites custom-built for a single purpose is over, surpassed by a number of smaller, less expensive, maneuverable spacecraft that aren’t such an easy target for U.S. adversaries.

That was the message from a small San Francisco-based startup satellite provider that has launched five satellites (one is no longer operating) in high orbits for communications and broadband service during the last two years and has orders for 10 more. Company officials reviewed the company’s strategy and plans during a luncheon Wednesday at the Space Symposium in The Broadmoor Golf Club.

“A satellite in stationary orbit is a sitting duck,” said Scott Jacobs, vice president of government programs for Astranis, a company started 10 years ago that has received $750 million from venture capital funds and institutional investors. “We are looking at how we can split and disaggregate missions by doing (more) equivalent missions faster and at a lower cost” on small satellites that can change orbit.

The need to move to smaller, cheaper and more maneuverable satellites was demonstrated early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago, when positioning, navigation and timing signals were compromised as the war started, Jacobs said. The U.S. Space Force responded quickly by awarding small contracts to Astranis, L3Harris and Sierra Space for the first phase of a more resilient GPS network.

The Space Force is expected to select a vendor by next year for eight such satellites by 2028 as a less expensive supplement to traditional GPS satellites at about one-fourth of the cost of traditional GPS spacecraft. Astranis and its subcontractor, Xona Space Systems, became the first to demonstrate last month that its satellite can successfully transmit a civilian GPS signal sent to an off-the-shelf receiver.

U.S. satellites also face a threat from China’s space program, which is now putting more satellites into orbit than the U.S. and is developing technology to disable or destroy other nations’ satellites, said Christian Keil, another Astranis vice president.

“The ability to move a (smaller) satellite makes it much easier to justify moving an asset; it is harder to justify moving a big, custom(-built) satellite,” Keil said.

New smaller satellites also can be reprogrammed because they have onboard processor elements allowing operators to add a capability on orbit or maneuver the spacecraft to avoid the threat from an adversary nation, according to Keil.

Astranis also has contracts with NASA and other government agencies as well as aviation and maritime broadband provider Anuvu and companies providing broadband service to Alaska, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and Thailand. Astranis, a competitor to Elon Musk-owned Starlink, hopes to have more than 100 of its high-capacity broadband satellites in orbit by 2030.