Viasat Suffers Malfunction With a Second Satellite
Internet provider Viasat is facing a malfunction with a second satellite, weeks after the US company experienced problems with its most advanced high-speed broadband satellite.
The malfunction is affecting the I6 F2 satellite that Viasat acquired when it merged with Inmarsat in May. The I6 F2 launched this February as one of Inmarsat’s most advanced communication satellites. But on Thursday, Viasat said the hardware “suffered a power subsystem anomaly during its orbit raising phase.”
“At this stage, Viasat and Airbus, the satellite's manufacturer, are working to determine the root cause of the anomaly and assess whether the satellite will be able to perform its mission,” Viasat says. “Airbus has advised that this anomaly is an unprecedented event; none of its geostationary telecommunication satellites have ever suffered a failure in orbit."
Despite the malfunction, Viasat says the problems with I6 F2 won’t affect customer services. That’s because Viasat planned on using the I6 F2 to “provide spare L-band and 4Gbps of additional Ka-band capacity” to increase the redundancy of the company’s satellite internet network. I6-F2 also launched as the twin to another satellite called I6-F1, which flew into Earth’s orbit in 2021.
Still, the malfunction doesn’t bode well for Viasat’s efforts to upgrade its internet capacity amid increased competition with SpaceX’s Starlink. In July, the company’s other satellite, ViaSat-3 Americas, suffered a separate malfunction with its reflector. That satellite is supposed to supply high-speed broadband to users in North and South America.
Viasat is still investigating the problem with ViaSat-3 Americas and plans on sharing more details about the situation next fiscal quarter. That said,
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