Viasat says latest broadband satellite failed to fully deploy antenna
(2023/07/14)
- Reference: 1689355751
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/07/14/viasat_says_new_broadband_satellite/
- Source link:
Satellite operator Viasat is facing an issue with its latest satellite, which appears to have affected antenna deployment and may impact its ability to deliver high-speed broadband.
The ViaSat-3 Americas satellite was launched on April 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and was left to deploy its solar arrays and drift to its final orbital location over the next several weeks.
However, [1]Viasat has now disclosed that an “unexpected event” occurred during deployment of the reflector for its antenna and reckons this may affect the performance of the satellite.
[2]
In a statement, Viasat CEO, Mark Dankberg, said his company was disappointed by the development. “We’re working closely with the reflector’s manufacturer to try to resolve the issue. We sincerely appreciate their focused efforts and commitment.”
[3]
[4]
Viasat and the supplier are conducting a review of the deployment of the reflector to determine what happened and if any remedial measures can be taken.
The satellite is the first of a constellation of three high-capacity Ka-band satellites intended to deliver greater coverage and higher bandwidth broadband for the company and its customers. The [5]ViaSat-3 class are said to be capable of delivering over 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of throughput each, with the flexibility to concentrate that capacity where it may be most needed.
[6]
Potential options include redeploying satellites from the rest of Viasat's fleet to help, or reallocating a subsequent ViaSat-3 class satellite to provide additional Americas bandwidth, the company said.
The intended area of coverage for ViaSat-3 Americas had been the Americas, in order to boost the company’s North American fixed broadband business. The other ViaSat-3 launches are set to cover the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific (APAC) regions.
The ViaSat-3 satellites are said to be equipped with the largest antenna reflectors ever carried by a commercial spacecraft. Each reflector is designed to deploy on a long boom, and Viasat said they are a direct derivative of the booms used to deploy the sunshield on the [7]James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but are even larger.
[8]Uncle Sam wants DEF CON hackers to pwn this Moonlighter satellite in space
[9]OneWeb lofts last batch of satellites to enable global internet service
[10]Russian military satellite comms provider offline after hack
[11]Hubble images photobombed by space hardware on the up
Viasat’s market valuation took a hit from the news, with [12]MarketWatch reporting that its stock was down more than 28 percent on Thursday. However, it quoted a financial analyst saying this seemed to have been “largely driven by emotion,” and pointed out the recent acquisition of Inmarsat had provided Viasat with global coverage, which was one of the goals of the ViaSat-3 constellation.
We asked Viasat for the latest update on the situation, and if they had any clues to what may have caused the malfunction. A spokesperson told us: “We had an unexpected event during the deployment of one of the reflectors which may materially impact the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite. We are in the early stages of working through the event and its root cause.”
[13]
“We are working contingency plans and will share more information at our earnings call next month. This is one benefit of having the resilience across the Viasat and Inmarsat constellations to be able to address events like this.” ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://investors.viasat.com/news-releases/news-release-details/viasat-provides-status-update-viasat-3-americas-satellite
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://news.viasat.com/blog/scn/what-is-viasat3
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/04/jwst_sunshield/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/03/moonlighter_satellite_hacking/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/27/oneweb_satellite_deployments/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/infosec_in_brief/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/03/hubble_satellite_interference/
[12] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/viasats-stock-selloff-largely-driven-by-emotion-analyst-says-6b1cf476
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The ViaSat-3 Americas satellite was launched on April 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and was left to deploy its solar arrays and drift to its final orbital location over the next several weeks.
However, [1]Viasat has now disclosed that an “unexpected event” occurred during deployment of the reflector for its antenna and reckons this may affect the performance of the satellite.
[2]
In a statement, Viasat CEO, Mark Dankberg, said his company was disappointed by the development. “We’re working closely with the reflector’s manufacturer to try to resolve the issue. We sincerely appreciate their focused efforts and commitment.”
[3]
[4]
Viasat and the supplier are conducting a review of the deployment of the reflector to determine what happened and if any remedial measures can be taken.
The satellite is the first of a constellation of three high-capacity Ka-band satellites intended to deliver greater coverage and higher bandwidth broadband for the company and its customers. The [5]ViaSat-3 class are said to be capable of delivering over 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of throughput each, with the flexibility to concentrate that capacity where it may be most needed.
[6]
Potential options include redeploying satellites from the rest of Viasat's fleet to help, or reallocating a subsequent ViaSat-3 class satellite to provide additional Americas bandwidth, the company said.
The intended area of coverage for ViaSat-3 Americas had been the Americas, in order to boost the company’s North American fixed broadband business. The other ViaSat-3 launches are set to cover the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific (APAC) regions.
The ViaSat-3 satellites are said to be equipped with the largest antenna reflectors ever carried by a commercial spacecraft. Each reflector is designed to deploy on a long boom, and Viasat said they are a direct derivative of the booms used to deploy the sunshield on the [7]James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but are even larger.
[8]Uncle Sam wants DEF CON hackers to pwn this Moonlighter satellite in space
[9]OneWeb lofts last batch of satellites to enable global internet service
[10]Russian military satellite comms provider offline after hack
[11]Hubble images photobombed by space hardware on the up
Viasat’s market valuation took a hit from the news, with [12]MarketWatch reporting that its stock was down more than 28 percent on Thursday. However, it quoted a financial analyst saying this seemed to have been “largely driven by emotion,” and pointed out the recent acquisition of Inmarsat had provided Viasat with global coverage, which was one of the goals of the ViaSat-3 constellation.
We asked Viasat for the latest update on the situation, and if they had any clues to what may have caused the malfunction. A spokesperson told us: “We had an unexpected event during the deployment of one of the reflectors which may materially impact the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite. We are in the early stages of working through the event and its root cause.”
[13]
“We are working contingency plans and will share more information at our earnings call next month. This is one benefit of having the resilience across the Viasat and Inmarsat constellations to be able to address events like this.” ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://investors.viasat.com/news-releases/news-release-details/viasat-provides-status-update-viasat-3-americas-satellite
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://news.viasat.com/blog/scn/what-is-viasat3
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/04/jwst_sunshield/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/03/moonlighter_satellite_hacking/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/27/oneweb_satellite_deployments/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/infosec_in_brief/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/03/hubble_satellite_interference/
[12] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/viasats-stock-selloff-largely-driven-by-emotion-analyst-says-6b1cf476
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZLHFjesgD62FgKj@g2IzPwAAAko&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Why No In-Orbit Satellite Techs?
An_Old_Dog
According to Bing's AI/ML*, "A commercial communications satellite will cost between $80 million and $400 million depending upon the weight of the satellite and its payload, plus the cost to launch it into orbit. Launch costs range from $5 million to $10 million for a Russian rocket up to about $60 million for one of the big US boosters."
The ISS costs about US$3 billion a year to maintain, and carries a crew of seven, so that's US$428 million and change per person, for one year.
I'm wondering why a consortium of companies who insure satellites hasn't been formed to rent a slot on the ISS for a paid-by-the-insurance-companies satellite techie. Yes, you have to rotate the techies (for physical and mental health reasons) on and off the ISS, and you have to provide a "space scooter" for them to fly to the satellite in question, but given the number of satellite failures-to-deploy, and failures-near-or-past-design-lifetime (not because satellites are necessarily badly-designed, but because we have so many of them), it seems potentially worth it.
*Yes, I know it might be lying.
Very shady dealing
Viasat knew this in April, soon after launch. Nevertheless, they told nobody and continued with their acquisition of Inmarsat, where most of the purchase price to Inmarsat owners consisted of Viasat shares. The deal completed on May 30th….and six weeks later they admitted it, and their shares plunged 36%. That’s 36% of the combined company, which effectively writes down the value of Viasat-only by nearly 60%. That’s because the failure might affect not just this satellite, but the other two it’s about to launch.
Without the Viasat 3’s, there is almost no Viasat. They own only 4 satellites, Wildblue is small, AnikF2 is 19 years old well past end-of-life could fail any minute, Viasat 1 is also old about 80% through Iife. Their only major asset really was Viasat2, and the broadband customers. Whereas Inmarsat, the company they “bought” has 12 satellites.
Basically, there’s little or no value in the original company, and they kept the charade up just long enough to exchange a Nothing for the whole of a large successful operator. Very sharp practice at best….and quite probably shading into outright fraud. Inmarsat owners are definitely going to sue them, this is going to be a long time in the courts.