And then there were three1. On Thursday morning the third ViaSat-3 satellite successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon Heavy rocket. Five hour later it separated in orbit and successfully established contact with controllers on the ground, marking a major milestone in the very important (and rather delayed) program.
It will still be a couple months before the satellite is serving customers. It needs to position into the correct orbital slot and undergo activation tests. But, later this summer, the company expects to have all three satellites active on its network. That will be a huge improvement for many of Viasat’s markets, including inflight internet service.
n.b. – Viasat covered hotel costs for PaxEx.Aero to attend the launch. As always, opinions expressed remain our own.
The Multi-Orbit Market
Multi-orbit is a cornerstone of Viasat’s pitch with the Amara inflight product, and it is not shying away from that. But the company also believes that the new GEO capacity coming online will allow it to carry the vast majority of data demand on its own satellites. The NexusWave multi-orbit solution for maritime informs that opinion. Speaking in Cocoa Beach, Florida over the weekend prior to the launch, CEO Mark Dankberg shared that 85-90% of NexusWave traffic is served on GEO today2, with customer satisfaction remaining high.
Dankberg expects that pattern to continue for the aero market, with the vast majority of traffic successfully served via GEO, so long as the company effectively manages congestion on the network. He referenced the original Viasat IFC launch, compared to Gogo‘s ATG networks with much lower latency, as an example. At that time, even with much higher latency, Viasat’s network outperformed Gogo’s based on having massively more capacity. With the second satellite in test mode today the company is once again running performance comparisons, but now with SpaceX as the competition. And, even only with its GEO capacity available, Dankberg describes the numbers as “quite attractive.” Which is not to say Viasat will necessarily deliver more bandwidth to an aircraft than Starlink. But at some point there are diminishing returns on that additional capacity, despite Ookla’s hot takes.
He similarly dismisses latency differences as a major factor for performance on most network traffic. “Right now, people are attributing the distinction between us and SpaceX to latency,” he shared. “I think more of it is just some of the shaping that we agreed to do with our customer. We’ll be relaxing that shaping and enabling more upstream bandwidth [as ViaSat-3 activates]. Things are going to become very attractive.”
Don Buchman, leading Viasat’s aviation division, expressed similar confidence in Hamburg a couple weeks ago during AIX. The market today talks of multi-orbit, and an ever increasing path towards lower orbital planes (LEO and MEO) to increase performance.
There’s more to the story… Dig deeper with a PaxEx.Aero Premium Subscription
1 Or two and a bit, perhaps? The first of three satellites suffered an anomaly with the reflector deployment leading to a 90% capacity loss. But it is in service today, providing much needed capacity to aircraft flying between Hawaii and the Mainland. The second satellite is in testing and things are looking very promising for activation over the Americas in the days/weeks ahead. This third satellite still needs to make it through the testing process before activating over Asia and the Western Pacific.
2 That number was 75-85% last November prior to the VS3F2 launch, suggesting that even with the LEO capacity available customer usage patterns are not shifting. At least not yet. A push towards more applications that depend on lower latency could impair the satisfaction scores, even if capacity is virtually unlimited.
More news from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2026
- PaxEx PR: Crystal Cabin Awards 2026 Finalists Announced
- SkyNook Offers Space, Privacy in Economy Class
- Iberia, Recaro Team for Sustainable Seating
- Luci Live Brings Contextual Chat to FlightPath3D’s Moving Map
- Expliseat Snags Pair of US Airline Customers
- ThinKom’s Nexus Delivers High Performance in a Compact Package
- Saudia, NSG (Finally) Confirm Inflight Internet Partnership
- Amazon Leo Introduces Gigabit Aviation Antenna
- SES, JAL Team for Expanded Multi-Orbit IFC Deployment
- Air Canada Picks Collins Aurora Mini-Suites for A321XLRs
- Expliseat Goes Premium with TiSeat S Launch
- Thales FlytEDGE Aura Brings Brighter, Lighter Screens On Board
- Viasat Pursues Boeing Line-fit for AERA Terminal
- Volotea to Trial Immfly LEO Inflight Internet
- SES Hits Multi-orbit Line-fit Offerability Milestone with Boeing
- ThinKom Secures Ka2517 Type Certification for SES Open Orbits
- Collins Scores Trio of Airlines for Helix Launch
- Burrana Teases Digital In-seat Billboard Platform
- Boeing’s E-Lounge: A Digital Workspace in the Sky
- Hughes Snags Air India IFC Contract, Tweaks Antenna Plans
- eXNeo Brings New Brains to Old Screens for Performance Boost
- Some Starlink Updates from AIX 2026
- Moment Launches Agnostic Wi-Fi Portal
- Astronics Boosts Power Options On Board
- Unum Two Forward-Facing Business Class Mini-Suites Ready for the Runway
- ViaSat-3 APAC Launches Successfully
A favor to ask while you're here...
Did you enjoy the content? Or learn something useful? Or generally just think this is the type of story you'd like to see more of? Consider supporting the site through a donation (any amount helps). It helps keep me independent and avoiding the credit card schlock.
Leave a Reply