Advanced Television

Viasat chooses Ariane debut flight

June 18, 2019

By Chris Forrester

Viasat of California used the Paris Air Show to confirm that it has modified the launch contract for its upcoming Viasat-3 satellite.

Viasat will move the launch from the existing Ariane 5 rocket to the new, and more powerful, Ariane 64 rocket, and be the first commercial customer on the newly-designed rocket.

The Ariane 64 rocket will be launched from the Kourou space centre. Viasat says it will announce specific mission plans later.

Previous announcements regarding the Ariane 62 and 64 rockets talk of three launch contracts for OneWeb and its mega-constellation, and in September 2018, Ariane announced an order from Eutelsat for five commercial launches. Launches are currently scheduled to commence in 2021.

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