The ViaSat-3 satellite is considerably larger than most other geostationary satellites. It has an overall wingspan of 144 feet. That’s comparable to about half a football field or ten cars parked bumper-to-bumper. It weighs approximately 6 metric tons or about the same as a large adult elephant.

It was deployed May 1, 2023 into space and will be fully operational at the end of August 2023. It is in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above the equator. If you could see it with the naked eye, which isn’t possible, it would look like it isn’t moving. This is because it moves in tandem with the Earth.

Each Viasat-3 satellite will generate more than 20kW of power, making it among the most powerful satellites ever launched. That’s enough energy to turn on 2,900 9-watt LED bulbs.

The ViaSat-3 reflector is very large for a commercial broadband satellite. The reflector is tethered to the satellite’s bus with a boom modeled on the James Webb Space Telescope sunshade mid-booms. The reflector’s very large diameter allows the satellite to reuse more bandwidth to downlink to more locations. The reflector is constructed of reinforced polymers, graphite and carbon fiber.

Although the satellite weighs in at 6 Metric tons it is actually the lightest satellite ViaSat has ever launched. The reason for that is the use of materials similar to those used in aircraft, drones and bicycles.

ViaSat-3 has the power to download a stack of books nearly two miles high every second. That’s a download of 125,000 books a second or 7.5 million a minute.

The remarkable ViaSat-3 constellation is a groundbreaking development in satellite technology.