Tuesday, December 6, 2011

ViaSat-1 Satellite Nears Service Launch

The newly launched ViaSat-1's was switched on for the first time, enabling the first high-capacity satellite over North America to begin a series of in-orbit tests. Those tests will be followed by a move to its operational orbital location. The 140 Gbps capacity satellite is scheduled to enter service in late December. At that time the initial ViaSat-1 service will launch and then services will sequentially expand across the United States over the following months.


ViaSat has now transmitted the first data over its new high-capacity satellite and the WildBlue high-speed data network. The initial transmissions and receptions were completed the evening of December 2 from a SurfBeam 2 terminal at ViaSat’s Carlsbad campus, through the ViaSat-1 satellite and a gateway located in Milford, Utah. http://www.viasat.com

  • On October 19, International Launch Services successfully launched ViaSat-1, the highest capacity commercial satellite to date with 140 Gbps of capacity. The Ka-band spot beam satellite will include coverage over North America and Hawaii, enabling a variety of new, high-speed broadband services for WildBlue in the U.S. and Xplornet through Telesat in Canada. ViaSat-1 joins WildBlue-1, Anik F2, and AMC-15 as capacity available for provision of WildBlue high-speed Internet access across America.