ViaSat announced that the launch of the ViaSat-1 high-capacity satellite, previously
set for the end of September, is now scheduled for mid-October. The delay is
due to the launch failure of the Russian Federal Mission with the Express AM4
communication satellite that occurred on August 18.

 

Immediately after the failure of the Russian Federal
Proton mission with the Express AM4 satellite, the Russian Inter-Agency
Commission conducted a formal investigation into the cause of the failure.

 

The Inter-Agency Commission identified the cause of the
Express AM4 failure as a configuration error in the flight control software of
the Proton Breeze-M upper stage. Following that investigation, Roscosmos lifted
the ban on Proton/Breeze M launch processing during the last week of August and
appropriate recommendations have been prepared for implementation on upcoming
launches.

 

The final clearance to launch ViaSat-1 is expected to be
issued next week, following review of the investigation conclusions by a
Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) to be conducted September 8 and 9 by
International Launch Services (ILS) with ViaSat participation.

 

Construction and testing of the ViaSat-1 high-capacity
satellite at Space Systems/Loral is complete and the spacecraft is being prepared
for a September 13 shipment from SS/L to the ILS launch base at the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

ViaSat-1 is designed to transform the economics and
quality of service that satellite broadband can provide, with the capacity to
serve the accelerating growth in bandwidth demand for multimedia Internet
access over the next decade and enable satellite to compete with terrestrial
alternatives.

 

The high-capacity Ka-band spot beam satellite has planned
coverage over North America and Hawaii, enabling a variety of new, high-speed
broadband services for WildBlue in the U.S. and Xplornet in Canada. With a
capacity estimated at 150 Gbps, ViaSat-1 will become the highest capacity
satellite in the world once it is safely on orbit.

 

ViaSat recently announced that it has been selected
by Bombardier Aerospace to provide airborne communications terminal equipment
as part of a new high-speed Internet option on Global 5000 and Global 6000
aircraft.

 

The Bombardier option combines the ViaSat VMT-1500
shipset along with the EMS Aviation CNX-200 router to provide an
office-in-the-sky connection for business aviation passengers.

 

 

By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]