ViaSat-1
High throughput communications satellite
ViaSat-1 is a high throughput communications satellite owned by Viasat Inc. and Telesat Canada. Launched October 19, 2011 aboard a Proton rocket, it held the Guinness record for the world's highest capacity communications satellite with a total capacity in excess of 140 Gbit/s, more than all the satellites covering North America combined, at the time of its launch.
01Overview
ViaSat-1 is capable of two-way communications with small dish antennas at higher speeds and a lower cost-per-bit than any satellite before.
The satellite is positioned at 115.1 degrees West longitude geostationary orbit point, with 72 Ka-band spot beams; 63 over the U.S. (Eastern and Western states, Alaska and Hawaii), and nine over Canada.
The Canadian beams are owned by satellite operator Telesat and are used for the Xplornet broadband service to consumers in rural Canada. The US beams provide fast Internet access called Exede, Viasat's satellite Internet service.
ViaSat-1 is a satellite system architecture created by Viasat Inc. The objective is to create a better satellite broadband user experience, making satellite competitive with DSL and wireless broadband alternatives for the first time.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “ViaSat-1”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Transporting rocket Proton-M with ViaSat-1.webm by RosCosmos TV, CC BY 3.0
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