Capacity Booster

Modern commercial airliners are filled with backups to the backups, all designed to get us to our destination safely and efficiently. There are multiple autopilots and flight control systems, secondary hydraulic and electrical systems and two engines. The pilot and co-pilot are even server different meals, so should one of them come down with food poisoning, there is always a backup. Operators of communications satellites face similar demands in maintaining service, which are compounded by the orbital location of their satellites: over 22,000 miles above the equator.

2023-02-20T20:01:29-08:00August 25th, 2017|

Space Odyssey

ViaSat-2 sat quietly on its cradle in the clean room, no longer attended to by scores of gowned technicians. Antennas folded, solar panels and radiators tightly retracted. Its large rectangular structure could have been mistaken for an industrial appliance, rather than a highly advanced communications satellite bound for space. The satellite was ready to be enclosed in a specialized shipping container, a cocoon, to protect the satellite during its flight to French Guiana. And soon after being launched on an Ariane 5, ViaSat-2 will stretch out its 158-foot-long solar panels, ushering in new capabilities of Ka-band connectivity.

2023-02-20T20:01:50-08:00March 22nd, 2017|
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