ViaSat-3 is designed to unlock more opportunity — for more of the world
Designed to have superior capacity — for nearly unlimited possibilities.
Three high-capacity satellites. Anticipated superior bandwidth economics.
ViaSat-3 is planned to be a global satellite constellation consisting of three high-capacity Ka-band satellites that is expected to increase the coverage and capacity of our network to bring high-quality, low-cost connectivity where it's needed most.
With the ViaSat-3 constellation, Viasat anticipates being capable of delivering bandwidth economics superior to that of any other space-based provider. This would allow us to offer unprecedented bandwidth productivity that helps us keep pace with growing marketplace demand and fuels innovation in the marketplace — while significantly growing our total addressable market (TAM) and enabling us to focus on delivering higher margin services, including real-time earth and space networking.
A major step toward global digital inclusion
ViaSat-3 will increase the coverage and capacity of our satellite constellation, helping us bring high-quality, low-cost connectivity where it's needed most — which helps countries around the world further their economic development, improve education, and provide better access to healthcare in alignment with the United Nations' sustainability goals for:
- Quality education
- Gender equality
- Decent work and economic growth
- Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
- Reduced inequalities
ViaSat-3 is satellite reimagined
To learn even more about ViaSat-3, visit our FAQs.
Capacity
The ViaSat-3 constellation is expected to boost our total capacity by approximately 600%.
Nearly half of the capacity of the ViaSat-3 fleet is expected to be available in unserved and underserved markets where many people are unconnected.
Digital inclusion
- 2.9 billion people – 37% of the world’s population – have never used the internet
- The global ViasSat-3 constellation is expected to be a major step forward in our mission to deliver affordable, high-speed connectivity solutions where they're needed most
Bandwidth productivity
We believe we will have growth opportunities with new higher speed plans, offering more video streaming, once ViaSat-3 (Americas) enters commercial service – currently targeted for Q4 FY2023.
All of our payload units are custom-designed for the ViaSat-3 mission. These are not the off-the-shelf type of parts that most satellite manufacturers use like puzzle pieces to build a satellite. The design, development and qualification of these units took years.
For the space and ground segments, the parts are custom-designed and tailored to work seamlessly as a system. The VS-3 ground segment is unique to VS-3, but certain aspects will be backwards-compatible with earlier generations of satellites.
The ground segment represents a number of breakthroughs with virtualization of Satellite Access Node (SAN) equipment; use of central processing facilities (i.e., cloud-based services); a large number of small and inexpensive SANs vs. small number of very large, very expensive gateways as used in earlier programs.
Ground network
- Most of the complexity related to service launch is in the ground network. Alpha testing of the ground network is proceeding successfully, as we scale the number of active Satellite Access Nodes (SANs) needed for initial service launch.
- To get the breakthrough increases in capacity, Viasat is deploying many more SANs and distributing them around a wide geographic area. This makes the system more resilient, since even if one SAN goes down, the multiple redundancy will enable us to make up for it.
Virtually global coverage from three ultra-high capacity satellites
The global ViaSat-3 constellation is expected to deliver unprecedented capacity to individuals, businesses, and governments — on the ground, in the air, at sea, and beyond.
- Spectrum: The ViaSat-3 constellation operates on Ka-band
- Coverage: The ViaSat-3 constellation is designed to cover North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific
- Speed: Each ViaSat-3 satellite is planned to have the ability to deliver download speeds of up to 100's of Mbps
- Capacity: Each satellite is anticipated to deliver at least 1 Terabit of data per second (1Tbps)
- Weight: Each satellite is expected to weigh approximately 6 metric tons
Latest ViaSat-3 news
Second ViaSat-3 payload delivered
The second ViaSat-3 payload has been delivered for integration and rigorous spacecraft environmental testing in preparation for launch
A major milestone in company engineering
To celebrate World Engineering Day, we're highlighting some of the Viasat engineers who are reimagining what satellite is capable of
Arqiva installs 9-meter antenna for ViaSat-3 in UK
The antenna is intended to provide telemetry, tracking, and command (TTC) for the forthcoming second satellite in the ViaSat-3 fleet
ViaSat-3 milestones
Mechanical environmental testing
The ViaSat-3 Americas satellite has completed mechanical environmental testing, where it was was subjected to simulations of the vibration and acoustic environments it will experience during launch.
Flight configuration
ViaSat-3 satellite enters the mechanical environmental testing process, simulating the vibration and acoustic environments that the satellite will experience during the launch and early transfer orbit phases of its mission
Viasat initiates mechanical integration
The first ViaSat-3 satellite is now in the mechanical environments build process. The process milestone involves the attachment of the solar arrays, reflectors and other items which will result in the satellite being in its full, launch configuration for the first time
Payload and bus module mating
ViaSat-3 payload and bus modules are mated, enabling integrated testing of both systems
Payload module delivery
The first ViaSat-3 payload module is completed and delivered to Boeing for completion of the satellite and testing