EPOCH IPS is a COTS software product (Commercially available Off-The-Shelf) intially developed by the company Integral System Inc., which is now Kratos ISI Inc. (after the merger with Kratos in 2011).

EPOCH is a product solution for satellite command and control. It is able to control an array of satellites with minimal personnel. A combination of EPOCH IPS’s open architecture, graphical user interface and automated monitoring and control features allows users to monitor and control both satellite and ground systems. EPOCH IPS’s architecture consists of several servers and user workstations all connected through an Ethernet local access network (LAN). EPOCH Integrated Product Suite contains EPOCH T&C Serverand EPOCH Client, which are Integral Systems' real-time satellite data processing and control software products. EPOCH Integrated Product Suite provides satellite command and control capabilities, including telemetry processing and display, commanding and command verification, ground-station control, alarm or event processing and data archiving. These functions are driven by the EPOCH Database product, allowing the system to support multiple satellites through database updates without modifying the run-time software.

Integral Systems Europe (ISE) is a subsidiary of the company American company Integral Systems Inc., specializing in satellite ground systems.  ISE provides complete ground station integrated solutions including hardware, software and associated services. ISE manages sales in the European, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and African geographical areas. ISE role is to provide COTS (Commercial-Off-the-Shelf) based solutions for:

• Satellite Control Systems,
• CSM (Carrier Systems Monitoring),
• M&C (Monitoring and Control),
• Military Networks.

Kratos Integral Systems International Inc. is a provider of products, systems and services for satellite command and control, telemetry and digital signal processing, data communications, enterprise network management and communications information assurance. Kratos ISI specializes in the development, management and operation of secure communications networks, both satellite and terrestrial, as well as systems and services to detect, characterize and geolocate sources of RF interference. Its customers include U.S. and foreign commercial, government, military and intelligence organizations.

Kratos Integral Systems International, Inc. has long-term relationships with the U.S. DOD, NASA, NOAA.

On July 27, 2011, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc.  merged with the company Integral Systems Inc. Now (2012), the company Kratos ISI is linked to the following network of companies :

• Integral Systems, Inc.,
• Integral Systems Europe, 
• Lumistar, Inc., 
• Newpoint Technologies, Inc., 
• RT Logic SAT Corporation and CVG-Avtec.

SCISYS is a British software and services company that specialises in solving complex problems, for example:

• Mission control systems for the European Space Agency (ESA), the RNLI and Ministry Of Defence
• Robotics and Autonomy systems in the space, defence and utilities markets
• Geographic Information Systems, e.g. for the Coal Authority
• Innovative Software- and System Solutions for Ground Segments, Service Centres, Data Services, Integrated Applications and ICT Infrastructures
• Advanced meteorological systems and complete solutions for Earth Observation, meteorological receptions systems
• Professional engineering and consultancy services for the support of space programmes and missions

ScanEx Research and Development Center (ScanEx R&D Center) is a Russian company on the remote sensing market.

It offers a set of services ranging from acquisition to thematic processing of Earth observation images from space. In 2012, ScanEx had signed license agreements with the top world remote sensing operators for direct data acquisition from IRS, SPOT, EROS, RADARSAT and ENVISAT satellites series to proprietary UniScan™ ground stations, enabling regular near real-time monitoring of territories of Russia and the CIS countries with spatial resolution from hundreds to less than one meter.

Iridium Communications Inc. is a company, based in McLean, Virginia, United States which operates the Iridium satellite constellation, a system of 66 active satellites used for worldwide voice and data communication from hand-heldsatellite phones and other transceiver units. The Iridium network is unique in that it covers the whole Earth, including poles, oceans and airways. The company derives its name from the chemical element iridium. The number of satellites projected in the early stages of planning was 77, the atomic number of iridium, evoking the metaphor of 77 electrons orbiting the nucleus.

The Iridium satellite constellation is a large group of satellites providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over Earth's entire surface. The company Iridium Communications Inc. owns and operates the constellation and sells equipment and access to its services.

The constellation operates 66 active satellites in orbit to complete its constellation and additional spare satellites are kept in-orbit to serve in case of failure. Satellites are in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 485 mi (781 km) and inclination of 86.4°. Orbital velocity of the satellites is approximately 17,000 mph (27,000 km/h). Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via K_a band inter-satellite links. Each satellite can have four inter-satellite links: two to neighbors fore and aft in the same orbital plane, and two to satellites in neighboring planes to either side. The satellites orbit from pole to pole with an orbit of roughly 100 minutes. This design means that there is excellent satellite visibility and service coverage at the North and South poles, where there are few customers. The over-the-pole orbital design produces "seams" where satellites in counter-rotating planes next to one another are traveling in opposite directions. Cross-seam inter-satellite link hand-offs would have to happen very rapidly and cope with large Doppler shifts; therefore, Iridium supports inter-satellite links only between satellites orbiting in the same direction.

HE Space Operations is a privately-owned company, operating internationally withoffices in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA.  HE Space Operations is specialised in personnel recruitment with its focus exclusively on space agencies and the space industry. 

Hughes Space and Communications Company was formed as a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft in 1961 following the merger of the company's Space and Communications Group and the Hughes Space Systems Division. 

This division built the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite, Syncom, in 1963 and followed it closely with the first geosynchronous weather satellite, ATS-1, in 1966. Later that year their Surveyor 1 made the first soft landing on the Moon as part of the lead-up to the moon landings in Project Apollo. Hughes also built Pioneer Venus in 1978, which performed the first extensive radar mapping of Venus, and the Galileo probe that flew to Jupiter in the 1990s. The company built nearly 40 percent of commercial satellites in service worldwide in 2000.

in 2000, Hughes Space and Communications Company became part of Boeing Satellite Systems.

XIPS is a commercial electron bombardment thruster (also known as an electrostatic ion thruster) – a form ion propulsion – that is a product of Hughes Space and Communications Company, which, in 2000, became part of Boeing Satellite Systems.

XIPS (pronounced "zips") employs the heavy inert gas xenon as a propellant. It was first used operationally aboard the PAS-5 (PanAmSat-5) communications satellite in 1997 and has since been fitted to many other geosynchronous satellites for use primarily in station-keeping. In a XIPS, xenon atoms are injected into an ionization chamber and ionized by electron bombardment. The propellant is then electrostatically accelerated through a series of biased grids.  Ions, ejected by XIPS, travel in a stream at a speed of 30 km/s (62,900 mph), nearly 10 times that of a conventional chemical thruster. The high efficiency of the system leads to a reduction in propellant mass of up to 90% for a satellite designed for 12–15 years operation.

For example on a XIPS equipped Boeing 702 satellite, four 25-cm thrusters provide economical station keeping, needing only 5 kg of fuel per year. Boeing asserts that this is "a fraction of what bipropellant or arcjet systems consume". Boeing further asserts, that a XIPS can be used for final orbit insertion and has orders( source: Wikipedia, Boeing_702 )  for spacecraft utilizing only ion thrusters. This conserves even more payload mass, as compared to using an on-board liquid apogee engine.