The new satellite is designed to offer ‘more bandwidth capacity’ than Viasat’s existing fleet. It comes as the company appears to be losing subscribers to Starlink.
Viasat is ready to finally launch a next-generation satellite that promises to drastically increase the US company’s capacity to serve users.
The ViaSat-3 F2 is scheduled to launch in the second half of October, the company announced today. It’ll ride onboard an Atlas V 551 rocket from United Launch Alliance, and is expected to « provide more bandwidth capacity » than Viasat’s existing fleet, effectively doubling the company’s network capacity.
The F2 will also try to make up for a stumble with the earlier ViaSat F1, which launched in 2023 as a high-orbiting geostationary satellite over 22,000 miles above the planet. It was designed to upgrade the Viasat network for customers across the Americas. But the satellite suffered a malfunction with its large reflector, a component developed to boost the F1’s broadband capacity.
Viasat salvaged the rest of the F1’s capabilities, and it entered into service a year ago, supplying broadband to commercial jets operating over North America.
