The most important GEO launch of the year
SpaceX's April 30 Falcon Heavy launch carried a trio of missions that each have the potential to rewrite the business of geostationary satcom, maybe even tipping the scales away from the current obsession with LEO. The rocket carried Viasat-3 Americas, the highest capacity satellite ever launched, Arcturus, the first commercial smallGEO communications satellite, and G-Space 1, a unique satellite servicing demonstrator. Reasons why each spacecraft is so important:
- At 1Tbps of total capacity, ViaSat-3 Americas has roughly the same throughput as the entire Gen-1 OneWeb constellation. The 6,000kg-satellite will be the biggest test of GEO vs LEO competition. ViaSat-3 Americas has a staggering 25 kilowatts of power, generated from solar arrays with a wingspan of 44 meters -- about one-third that of the ISS. ViaSat-3 Americas took more than six years to build and launch, making the time required roughly similar to that needed for deploying a Gen-1 LEO constellation
- Astranis' first satellite offers a mix of features found in GEO and LEO. At 400kg, the spacecraft is small enough to launch as a rideshare, like LEOs, and has a design life of eight years -- just half that of a typical GEO communications satellite. Operating from GEO means the satellites won't need expensive flat-panel antennas, and they small size concentrates coverage over areas the size of countries, not continents. SmallGEO popularity has shuffled in fits and starts, but Astranis has sold several and could push the technology into the mainstream
- Infinite Orbits has the long-term goal of operating a fleet of satellite servicers, but the company's prototype is having a near-term shaping impact on GEO. The G-Space 1 satellite will serve as a placeholder for a future Indonesian satellite, Nusantara H-1A. By protecting Indonesian company PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara's spectrum rights at the ITU, Infinite Orbits is showing how a 16U cubesat could rewrite orbital parking battles. Typically, operators trying to preserve a vacant spot in GEO need to pay another operator to park an old GEO satellite there, keeping frequencies in use per ITU rules. That could be done much more cheaply by smallsats, all while giving Infinite Orbits valuable rendezvous and proximity operations experience for more advanced servicing missions in the years to come.
SOURCE: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/04/viasat-3-americas/