Dual feeder plus inter-satellite link antenna system

A communication satellite comprising:

• a chassis;
• one or more dual feeder plus inter-satellite link (FISL) antennas, each configured to transmit and receive radiofrequency signals over a range of frequencies supporting feeder-link (FL) and inter-satellite link (ISL) communications;
• and
• one or more articulating structures, each configured to mount a corresponding one of the FISL antennas to the chassis and to mechanically steer a mechanical boresight of the corresponding one of the FISL antennas between a FL configuration and an ISL configuration, such that the corresponding one of the FISL antennas is physically pointing in a FL direction that supports a range of FL pointing directions in the FL configuration and is physically pointing in an ISL direction that supports a range of ISL pointing directions in the ISL configuration, the range of FL pointing directions not overlapping the range of ISL pointing directions.

A method for satellite communications using dual feeder plus inter-satellite link (FISL) antennas, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a communication satellite from a ground network, a beam configuration schedule comprising reconfiguration instructions,
• wherein the communication satellite comprises:
• one or more dual feeder plus inter-satellite link (FISL) antennas, each configured to transmit and receive radiofrequency signals over a range of frequencies supporting feeder-link (FL) and inter-satellite link (ISL) communications;
• and
• one or more articulating structures, each configured to mount a corresponding one of the FISL antennas to a chassis of the communication satellite and to mechanically steer a mechanical boresight of the corresponding one of the FISL antennas between a FL configuration and an ISL configuration based on the reconfiguration instructions, such that the corresponding one of the FISL antennas is physically pointing in a FL direction that supports a range of FL pointing directions in the FL configuration and is physically pointing in an ISL direction that supports a range of ISL pointing directions in the ISL configuration, the range of FL pointing directions not overlapping the range of ISL pointing directions;
• determining, for each schedule time of a plurality of schedule times of the beam configuration schedule based on the reconfiguration instructions, for each FISL antenna of the one or more FISL antennas, whether a present configuration of the FISL antenna is different from a scheduled configuration for the FISL antenna for the schedule time;
• and
• directing the one or more articulating structures to steer the mechanical boresights of the one or more FISL antennas between the FL configuration and the ISL configuration based on the determining, so that each FISL antenna of the one or more FISL antennas is in the scheduled configuration for the FISL antenna at each schedule time based on the beam configuration schedule.