Viasat-3 satellite suffers major antenna anomaly, upending Viasat Inc.’s growth plans; possible $420M insurance claim

TUPPER LAKE, NY — The large Viasat-3 Americas Ka-band broadband satellite launched May 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket has suffered a major anomaly in deployment of its Ka-band antenna and could cripple the satellite's commercial viability, according to industry officials.

Launched May 1, Viasat-3 successfully reached geostationary orbit and deployed the antenna. But starting in late May, word began to spread throughout the industry that there may have been an issue.

Rumors at first speculated that it might have been a Falcon Heavy problem, with damage to the antenna caused by excess vibration during launch, or somehow during the separation of the Falcon 9 rocket fairing.

Industry officials in the past week have said this is not the case, and that the problem lies with the Northrop Grumman antenna — the most striking feature of the satellite.

Among other indicators, SpaceX's launch activity since the Viasat-3 issue was discovered would have been altered if there had been any evidence that the rocket caused the antenna issue.

Viasat statement: reflector 'event' may materially impact Viasat-3 Americas performance

Viasat Inc. did not immediately respond to Space Intel Report requests for comment. The company released the following statement after the stock market's close on July 12:

Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, today disclosed that an unexpected event occurred during reflector deployment that may materially impact the performance of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite. Viasat and its reflector provider are conducting a rigorous review of the development and deployment of the affected reflector to determine its impact and potential remedial measures.

'We're disappointed by the recent developments,' said Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO, Viasat. 'We're working closely with the reflector's manufacturer to try to resolve the issue. We sincerely appreciate their focused efforts and commitment.'

Contingency plans are currently being refined to minimize the economic effect to the company. Potential options include redeploying satellites from Viasat's extensive fleet to optimize global coverage, and/or reallocating a subsequent ViaSat-3 class satellite to provide additional Americas bandwidth. The initial service priority for ViaSat-3 Americas has been to facilitate growth in the company's North American fixed broadband business.

There is no disruption to customers from this event, and no impact to coverage or capacity of the respective Viasat and Inmarsat constellations currently in service. Following the Inmarsat acquisition, Viasat has 12 Ka-band satellites in space, excluding ViaSat-3, with eight additional Ka-band satellites under construction.

The company will share additional information on the status of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite and any necessary contingency plans during its earnings call which is planned for August 9, 2023.

A total loss would mean a $420 million insurance claim

Viasat-3 Americas is insured for $420 million. Industry officials said there remained some hope that the antenna's defective deployment could be at least partially corrected, but that after more than a month of effort, that now seemed less likely.

A total loss would put Viasat Inc.'s near-term growth prospects into a tailspin. An investigation to find out what happened will almost certainly delay the launch, scheduled later this year, of the second Viasat-3, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The Viasat-3 Americas antenna anomaly will upend Viasat's plans for deploying three nearly identical Viasat-3 satellites for near-global coverage. Credite: Viasat

A total loss would also likely present space insurance underwriters with a loss for the year at a time when these companies have been warning that any big claim would force a dramatic increase in space insurance premiums.

Viasat Inc. selected Northrop Grumman as antenna provider after a much smaller Harris Corp.-built antenna on Viasat-2, launched in June 2017, suffered a deployment malfunction.

That issue led to a $188 million insurance claim by Viasat. Months of internal debate about what caused the problem — the Boeing-built satellite platform, or a problem with the Harris hardware? Industry officials have since concluded that it was a Harris issue, leading the Viasat's changing suppliers.

Viasat has been counting on the long-delayed Viasat 3 program — three large geostationary-orbit satellites ringing the globe, each with 1 Tbps of throughput — to grow its commercial and government businesses, and especially its in-flight connectivity offer.

Another issue that lawyers are likely to look into is whether Viasat's acquisition of London-based Inmarsat, which closed May 31, should have been delayed, or its terms reassessed, in light of the Viasat-3 problem.