ViaSat-3 is a planned global constellation of three

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

K-band communications satellites, the first of which was launched in 2023. Operated by Viasat, Inc., the satellites are intended to provide broadband connectivity with speeds of 100-plus megabits per second to homes, business and enterprise internet users, commercial, government and business aircraft, as well as government and defense markets, maritime and oceanic enterprises in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, Europe, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

History

The satellites were first announced in 2015. In February 2016, Viasat announced a partnership with

Boeing Satellite Systems The Boeing Satellite Development Center is a major business unit of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. It brought together Boeing satellite operations with that of GM Hughes Electronics' Space and Communications division in El Segundo, Califo ...

. For each of the three ViaSat-3 class satellites, Viasat will build the satellite payload and Boeing will provide the 702 satellite bus, system integration and test, launch vehicle integration and mission operations services. Each ViaSat-3 satellite is being manufactured at Viasat's manufacturing facility in

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

and the Boeing Satellite Systems facility in

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

. The satellites are projected to have a total network capacity over 1

terabit per second In telecommunications, data transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mult ...

Satellites

The ViaSat-3 constellation consists of three separate satellites, each designed to provide coverage to a global region: ViaSat-3 F1 will cover the Americas; ViaSat-3 F2 will cover Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and ViaSat-3 F3 will cover the Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. However due to technical difficulties with F1 that significantly lowered its capacity, once F2 is launched it will cover the Americas, and F1 will be moved to the EMEA region.

Launch

Viasat has three launch contracts, one for each ViaSat-3 class satellite. In 2016, the company announced plans to launch the first satellite with

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

on an

Ariane 6 Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) and manufactured by a consortium of European companies, led by the prime contractor ArianeGroup. As part of the Ariane rocket family, it is operate ...

rocket. In 2018, Viasat announced that the second one will be launched with

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets ...

on an

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...

, and the third one with

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

on the

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...

. The ViaSat-3 F1 (Americas) and ViaSat-3 F2 (EMEA) satellites at one time were expected to launch about six months apart starting in 2021, with the ViaSat-3 F3 (APAC) satellite projected to launch in the second half of 2022. However, in February, 2021, ViaSat's CEO announced that the company did not expect to launch the first satellite until early 2022. It would then take several months for the satellite to be in full service, because of necessary testing. By 2023, delays to the inaugural Ariane 6 launch prompted Viasat to cancel their contract with Arianespace and seek bids from other companies to launch the ViaSat-3 APAC satellite. ViaSat-3 F1 launched on 1 May 2023 aboard a

rocket, which successfully placed it into a near-geosynchronous orbit in the early hours of 1 May at an altitude of approximately 34,600 kilometers. Deployment of the antenna did not occur nominally and the satellite's performance was severely affected. Viasat triggered a $420 million claim, a space insurance underwriter described the situation to

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

as a “market changing event” for the sector. Viasat suffered its biggest one-day loss in share price following the news. In February 2024, Viasat announced that the crippled satellite is expected to enter commercial service in the second quarter of 2024 at less than ten percent of its 1 terabit per second capacity, and that a $421 million insurance claim had been filed. The ViaSat-3 F2 satellite is currently scheduled to launch in the first half of 2025 on an

rocket. The ViaSat-3 F3 satellite is expected to launch on a to-be-determined commercial launch vehicle.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2023 2023 in spaceflight Communications satellite constellations Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Communications satellites of the United States