Patent ID: 7751779

Claim:
A payload for mounting onto a host spacecraft, comprising: a first steerable spot beam antenna providing a downlink to and an uplink from a first user terminal; a second steerable spot beam antenna providing a downlink to and an uplink from a second user terminal; a switching network coupling the first steerable spot beam antenna to the second steerable spot beam antenna; and a payload control unit controlling the switching network to select one of the downlink to the first user terminal provided by the first steerable spot beam antenna and the downlink to the second user terminal provided by the second steerable spot beam antenna and one of the uplink from the first user terminal provided by the first steerable spot beam antenna and the uplink from the second user terminal provided by the second steerable spot beam antenna, wherein the first steerable spot beam antenna and the second steerable spot beam antenna provide the downlinks to and uplinks from the first and second user terminals in a bandwidth adjustable between 125 MHz, 250 MHz, 500 MHz and 1000 MHz, and the first steerable spot beam antenna and the second steerable spot beam antenna provide the uplinks from the first and second user terminals at a frequency ranges of approximately 14.0-14.5 GHz, 27.5-30 GHz, 30-31 GHz and 47.2-50.2 GHz and provide the downlinks to the first and second user terminals at frequency ranges of approximately 10.7-12.75 GHz, 17.7-20.2 GHz 20.2-21.2 GHz and 37.5-42.0 GHz.