Viasat adds one of Europe’s premier airlines, Icelandair, to its growing family of commercial airline customers focused on delivering great in-flight internet experiences at 35,000 feet.

The deal announced on May 22, will enable Icelandair to provide the fastest, highest performing in-flight Wi-Fi service at-scale to passengers that fly on the Carrier’s fleet of new Boeing 737MAX aircraft.

ViaSat-2 is making strong progress on its way toward its June 1 launch. The second week of the launch campaign closed by reaching a number of achievements including ViaSat-2 being transferred from the BIL (French acronym for Launcher Integration Building) to the BAF (French acronym for Final Assembly Building).  The BIL is the building where the rocket is initially assembled from the individual components that are shipped over from Europe.  The BAF is the building where the satellites and the payload fairing (nose cone) will be attached to complete the vehicle for flight.

After we have designed, built and launched a satellite into space, and it has reached its geostationary orbital slot, we do not immediately call it operational. In fact, we commence the next phase of the process, known as In-Orbit Test (IOT), which evaluates the health of the satellite and characterizes its performance post launch. 

IOT is the last major test on the satellite before it goes into service and is necessary for a number of reasons:

A question the Viasat program team is often asked is: what happens leading up to a satellite launch? Let’s take you through the ViaSat-2 journey – now that we’ve shipped the satellite from the Boeing Satellite Systems International factory in El Segundo, Calif., to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. As you’ll learn, a lot happens in the weeks leading up to its ride into space.

Shipping