TAMPA, Fla. — Viasat expects to know next week what caused the antenna deployment issue that severely impaired its debut ViaSat-3 broadband satellite over the Americas, the operator’s CEO announced during earnings results Nov. 8.
Mark Dankberg said Viasat would even be getting more information from the antenna’s supplier, which he didn’t name, on how long it might take to make sure a second, mostly built ViaSat-3 could launch without the problem that reduced the throughput on its first by greater than 90%.
In response to a CBS News report citing a Viasat executive before the April 30 SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of ViaSat-3 F1, the primary of three planned 1 terabit per second (Tbps) satellites, Northrop Grumman’s Astro Aerospace provided the antenna.
Dankberg said a 3rd ViaSat-3 under development, which uses different antennas from one other supplier and so is unaffected by the anomaly, now has a contract with an undisclosed provider to launch roughly this time next 12 months.
Boeing is under contract to deliver all three ViaSat-3 geostationary satellites for payloads provided by Viasat.
The second satellite, ViaSat-3 F2, was previously slated to launch on an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance this fall, and the ultimate ViaSat-3 F3 satellite was set to cover Asia Pacific.
Either ViaSat-3 F2 or ViaSat-3 F3 will as an alternative replace ViaSat-3 F1 over the Americas, Dankberg said, and ViaSat-3 F1 would then be relocated.
Doubling down on mobility
ViaSat-3’s satellite system is software-defined on the bottom, which Dankberg said enables the corporate to optimize ViaSat-3 F1’s remaining throughput for mobile connectivity needs.
The Carlsbad, California-based company’s fixed broadband business depends more on the quantity of bandwidth than on dynamic beam steering, he added, and can decline until the following ViaSat-3 launches and gets in position.
Nevertheless, Viasat expects strong demand for mobile connectivity on airplanes, ships, and from government customers will still enable the company to report growth for its fiscal 2024 that ends March 31, 2025, and financial 2025 ending March 31, 2026.
Previously a core focus for Viasat, the U.S. fixed broadband market represents lower than 15% of the group’s total revenues following its recently closed acquisition of British satellite operator Inmarsat.
Viasat has also stopped work on ViaSat-4, a high throughput satellite the operator was planning before acquiring Inmarsat to focus on fixed broadband demand.
“We expect the important thing technology work that was performed on ViaSat-4 will apply to a future broadband satellite that may deliver higher returns in mobility applications,” Dankberg said.
He said the choice to stop investing in ViaSat-4 would save the corporate a whole lot of tens of millions of dollars within the near term.
Mammoth insurance claims
Viasat is preparing to file a $421 million insurance claim for ViaSat-3 F1.
An issue the Inmarsat-6 (I-6) F2 spacecraft encountered with its power subsystem while raising orbit after its February launch can even end in a complete loss, Dankberg said, and was insured for $349 million.
I-6 F2 was expected to offer only a small contribution to near-term revenue, based on Dankberg, and was a part of a longer-term evolution of Inmarsat’s redundant global L-band coverage to a more recent generation of satellites. He said Viasat is preparing plans to interchange I-6 F2 with a brand new satellite order.
ViaSat-3 F1’s impairment, I-6 F2’s total loss, and the canned ViaSat-4 project resulted in a $900 million write-off, after bearing in mind expected insurance proceeds.
While ViaSat-3 F2 is already insured, the corporate remains to be finalizing coverage for ViaSat-3 F3 because the insurance market grapples with one in every of the worst years for losses on record.
Viasat reported $1.2 billion in revenue for the three months to the top of September, up 85% compared with revenue from continuing operations in the identical period last 12 months. Inmarsat provided $427 million of those revenues, reflecting year-on-year growth of 16%.
Nevertheless, Viasat reported a net lack of $767 million for the second quarter of its fiscal 12 months 2024, compared with a $70 million net loss from continuing operations the prior 12 months, mainly as a consequence of its sizable net write-down charges.
Adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, jumped 210% year-on-year to $486 million compared with continuing operations. Inmarsat provided about half of this, reflecting year-on-year growth of about 10%.
Viasat, which last 12 months sold its tactical data link business for nearly $2 billion, said the financial results were primarily driven by the Inmarsat acquisition, strong demand for business inflight connectivity, and its government security services.