TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX launched EchoStar’s greater than nine metric ton Jupiter-3 spacecraft July 28 and successfully dropped off the world’s heaviest industrial communications satellite in geosynchronous transfer orbit.
The Maxar Technologies-built satellite lifted off on a dedicated Falcon Heavy at 11:04 p.m. Eastern from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, separating from the rocket about three and a half hours later.
Each Falcon Heavy side boosters landed at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station just over seven minutes after launch for reuse. They’d supported two earlier Falcon Heavy missions, each for the U.S. Space Force: USSF-44 in November and USSF-67 early this 12 months.
The mission was delayed from July 26 to permit more time for vehicle checkouts after an abort was called with a couple of minute remaining within the countdown for reasons SpaceX didn’t detail.
EchoStar’s Hughes Networks Systems subsidiary, which is about to supply Jupiter-3’s broadband services, confirmed the satellite has began sending and receiving its first signals post-launch, and that engineers had deployed its solar arrays.
Jupiter-3 is about to double the capability of the operator’s Jupiter fleet with a further 500 gigabits per second, after reaching its 95 degrees west orbital slot and completing health checks the operator expects to wrap up within the fourth quarter.
The broadband services would address rising demand over the Americas, where it has been losing subscribers as capability constraints weigh on the business.
EchoStar recently said Hughes broadband subscribers are using about 15% more bandwidth on average year-on-year amid intensifying competition available in the market, including from SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation.
Jupiter-3 enables the corporate “to begin growing again in our key markets where we’ve been hesitant so as to add latest customers due to the capability limitations,” EchoStar chief operating officer Paul Gaske said, “and it also allows us the chance to enhance plans for our existing customers.”
He said the corporate has a variety of “pinch points” to handle but its constraints are highest in america, where it intends to place the biggest chunk of Jupiter-3’s capability to work.
Heavyweight champions
EchoStar ordered Jupiter-3 (also called EchoStar-24) in 2017 from Space Systems Loral before it rebranded as Maxar Technologies, and had initially planned to launch it in 2021 before the pandemic led to production issues at Maxar and other satellite manufacturers.
Maxar said Jupiter-3, at in regards to the size of an ordinary school bus when antennas and solar panels stowed and with a wingspan of a Boeing 737 when fully deployed, is the biggest spacecraft it has ever made.
Jupiter-3 unseats Telesat’s Telstar-19 Vantage that launched in 2018 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 as the biggest industrial communications satellite ever deployed.
Maxar-built Telstar-19 Vantage had a launch mass of roughly seven metric tons.
Jupiter-3 was deployed on the third Falcon Heavy of 2023, coming after its April 30 launch for primary passenger ViaSat-3 Americas, a 5.6 metric ton satellite operated by EchoStar broadband rival Viasat that later suffered an antenna anomaly.
Arcturus, the primary satellite built by Astranis that was also on the flight with a mass of around 400 kilograms, suffered an unrelated post-launch issue meaning it should not provide broadband over Alaska as planned.
The mission for Jupiter-3 was Falcon Heavy’s seventh flight since its debut in 2018. It was SpaceX’s 51st launch mission to this point this 12 months.