Why Every Satellite Needs Earth | Northwood CEO on a16z

Northwood CEO Bridget Memphler explains how ground infrastructure has become the overlooked bottleneck in the space economy, limiting the utility of satellites despite advances in launch and manufacturing. The company provides end-to-end ground systems—antennas, sites, networking, and software—to connect satellites back to Earth, enabling faster mission deployment and higher data throughput.

Ground as the Critical Third Pillar

Every satellite needs ground contact to function; without it, it's "just a rock in space." Launch cadence and satellite production have accelerated, but ground infrastructure lags, often taking longer to set up than building and launching the spacecraft. Memphler traces this to misaligned incentives in the value chain: antenna makers deliver point solutions, software integrators depend on others, and no one optimizes holistically. A pandemic project building antennas from Home Depot parts sparked deeper investigation, revealing via market studies that commercial and government operators faced throughput limits, with some launching satellites without ground plans, risking asset loss or underutilization. Modern missions demand more: proliferated constellations, dynamic orbits, and massive data volumes, flipping the switch on ground needs.