The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 02, 2026
Filed:
Dec. 21, 2023
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, CA (US);
Andrew D. Bohn, Duvall, WA (US);
Michael Nicolls, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Yashodhan Dandekar, Cupertino, CA (US);
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Starbase, TX (US);
Abstract
A user terminal for a satellite communication system is programmed to receive data specifying candidate satellites of a plurality of satellites as being available for links during a plurality of time slots. The user terminal is assigned to a ground network point-of-presence (PoP). The candidate satellites are scheduled to communicate with different ones of a plurality of gateway terminals during each time slot. The user terminal can, during a first time slot, transmit first data requests to one of the candidate satellites; detect a deviation from a communication quality threshold on a communication path between the phased array antenna and the ground network PoP; and in response to the detection, transmit second data requests to another candidate satellite. Additionally or alternatively, the user terminal can proactively avoid a communication interruption related to obstructed lines of sight of a phased array antenna of the user terminal by switching between candidate satellites.