TAMPA, Fla. — Viasat is holding off on a contingency plan for ViaSat-3 Americas within the hope it could still get some capability from the broadband satellite despite its defective antenna, the operator’s chair and CEO Mark Dankberg said Aug. 9.
Engineers have been capable of get end-to-end measurements showing the remainder of the satellite is working as expected or higher, Dankberg said throughout the company’s earnings call.
But while “the incontrovertible fact that we will communicate through it’s hopeful,” he said more data is required to find out whether Viasat will ultimately get little to no capability from the satellite, or something closer to the 1 terabit per second (Tbps) it had been expecting.
Viasat expects to have enough data by its next earnings announcement in November to maneuver forward with one among the multiple contingency plans it has within the works to cover this big selection of potential scenarios.
Options include constructing a substitute from scratch, buying capability from other operators, and redeploying spacecraft from Viasat’s current fleet of 19 satellites.
Viasat could also reallocate one among its two upcoming ViaSat-3 satellites to cover the Americas as a substitute of elsewhere.
Boeing is under contract to construct all three ViaSat-3 satellites for payloads provided by Viasat.
Dankberg didn’t name the antenna supplier for ViaSat-3 Americas but, in accordance with a CBS News report citing a Viasat executive before the satellite’s launch April 30 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, it was supplied by Northrop Grumman’ss Astro Aerospace.
The second ViaSat-3 satellite was slated to launch on an Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance this fall to cover Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The third and final ViaSat-3 satellite targeting Asia Pacific (APAC) is on account of launch half a 12 months later.
ViaSat-3 EMEA uses the identical antenna as ViaSat-3 Americas, and Dankberg said changes to its launch schedule also rely on the corrective actions it takes.
“It was pretty near with the ability to launch once we had this antenna anomaly, he added.
ViaSat-3 APAC uses a special antenna so its launch is unaffected.
Financial hit
Viasat said issues with ViaSat-3 Americas, which is insured, will mainly affect its performance within the U.S. fixed broadband market, representing only 13% of total revenues following its recent acquisition of British satellite operator Inmarsat.
Dankberg said the operator expects to fulfill a backlog of demand it has from airline customers “not less than for some time period” with bandwidth from other satellites.
While the corporate doesn’t expect the anomaly on ViaSat-3 Americas to affect financial results for its fiscal 12 months 2024 that ends March 30, 2025, it does anticipate an impact the next 12 months.
“We consider we’ll proceed to grow in fiscal 12 months 2025 as well,” Dankberg said, “but to not the identical extent we’d have without the anomaly.”
Viasat reported $780 million in revenue for the three months to the tip of June, up 36% in comparison with sales from continuing operations in the identical period last 12 months.
Adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, jumped 87% to $183 million.
The outcomes include Inmarsat’s one-month contribution of about $134 million in revenue and $72 million in adjusted EBITDA following its acquisition earlier this 12 months.