Viasat continues to expand its polar satellite coverage for offerings military and government missions using its GX10 payloads. The latest test leveraged the Mil-Ka steerable beam on GX10, providing services north of 63.5° latitude.
The test was performed on Gulfstream III owned by Calspan Corporation. The company specializes in providing airborne test bed services to the industry.
The GX10 service is delivered on two payloads – GX10A and GX 10B – flying on Space Norway’s highly elliptical orbit (HEO) Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission spacecraft (ASBM-1 and ASBM-2). While the satellites are managed from a Norwegian ground station the Viasat payloads are controlled from the company’s operations center in the United States.
The five hour test flight operated from Ottawa, spending approximately 15 minutes north of 63.5° to prove the functionality. Given the limited timing it is unclear is the system switched between the two GX10 satellites during the test or maintained the link on just one.
This test adds to the previously announced activation of the GX10A & GX10B payloads for government missions from May 2025.
Availability of the network for commercial services is still anticipated in Viasat’s FY2026 which ends in July 2026. The GX10 capacity should eventually be available for all aircraft fitted with Viasat’s GX solution. Emirates was the first airline to commit to that service and has the necessary terminals installed on a portion of its fleet, via the Airbus HBCplus program, though GX is no longer part of that program.
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