9 Satellites; downloadable and recordable software for use in satellites for controlling the orientation of the spacecraft, detecting, isolating and correcting faults on board, configuring onboard equipment, processing data captured by onboard sensors, handling commands from the ground, retrieving telemetry to the ground, routing data from the ground to onboard equipment, monitoring the generation, storage and distribution of power, and monitoring the thermal environment onboard; communication apparatus to transmit data from a satellite to another satellite over a variety of physical layers and receive data from a ground station, amplify it and retransmit it to another ground station over a wide geographical area; satellite apparatus to orient antennas and other sensitive devices in specific locations of interest, host payloads for communications and remote sensing, and sustain the operation of payloads during the mission lifetime