The journey from the factory to the launch pad and beyond
Reprinted with permission from the Viasat blog
A lot happens in the months and weeks leading up to a satellite’s ride into space. In this blog post, we’ll take you along on the ViaSat-3 Americas journey — from Boeing’s factory in El Segundo, CA, to the launch site in Cape Canaveral, FL — and beyond into orbit.
Shipping
It’s not easy to move a satellite that weighs over 12,000 pounds and is roughly the size of a school bus — especially when the launch base is on the other side of the country. Unlike ViaSat-1 or ViaSat-2, the launch site for ViaSat-3 Americas is in the United States and is accessible by road or air. For several reasons, we decided it would be best to fly the spacecraft to Cape Canaveral. By flying the satellite, it will arrive in Florida up to nine days earlier than if we trucked it across the country.
To transport a large piece of equipment over a great distance, you need a really big container, and an even larger airplane.
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ViaSat-3 loading onto the Antnov An-124
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ViaSat-3 loading onto Anoonov An-124 aircraft
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ViaSat-3 secured inside the Antonov An-124 aircraft
ViaSat-3 will make the journey in the same container Boeing originally built to accommodate ViaSat-2. These are not just large crates, but very sophisticated environmentally controlled chambers. The container is designed to physically protect the satellite from damage, keep its environment clean and the temperature and humidity within specified ranges.
For ViaSat-3, we chartered the largest available cargo plane in the world — a Ukrainian-built and operated Antonov An-124. The satellite containers are carefully designed to fit in the An-124’s cargo bay. Loading the container onto an An-124 takes about 4-6 hours, as does unloading it.
The container was designed to make maximum use of the An-124’s cargo bay, so the fit is tight, by design. That means the rigging crew must precisely lift, translate, land and align the container on the ramp leading into the An-124’s nose loading door. Any misalignment will result in having to back the container out and re-aligning to try again.
When you’re dealing with a container that’s almost 50 feet long, 16 feet wide and 14 feet tall, weighs over 70,000 pounds and contains a satellite worth hundreds of millions of dollars, you take your time to get it right.
Once the satellite reaches the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from the satellite factory, it will fly through the night to Cape Canaveral, Florida. The An-124 direct flight will then arrive at the former Shuttle Landing Facility, now operated as the Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) by Space Florida.
Launch Campaign
Once a satellite arrives at the launch site, preparation for the launch usually takes 30 days. We expect to do prepare ViaSat-3 Americas in 21 days.
We can do this because we designed ViaSat-3 to use fully electric propulsion, so there is no need for chemical propellant loading onto the satellite. In fact, ViaSat-3 Americas was fueled with a full load of inert xenon gas well over two years ago.
Once the satellite is unpacked, we run it through a series of tests to make sure everything is in place and works as intended. It’s very important to verify that everything still functions exactly the same as it did before it was last tested in the factory. Since we only get one chance to get it right, we meticulously check everything again before moving forward.
Mate to Launch Vehicle
Up to this point in the launch, we’ve been working on our own. That changes as soon as combined operations start.
Combined operations for ViaSat-3 will start 10 to 11 days before launch, when we mate the satellite to the payload adapter, the structure that holds the satellite to the rocket. Once we reach combined operations, the satellite team and the launch vehicle team are integrated and follow a joint schedule.
Once combined operations begin, there is a very carefully scripted sequence of events where the satellite is joined to the adapter, then encapsulated within the payload fairing, mated to the rocket, rolled out to the launch pad, launch rehearsal and finally, launched! Combined operations end upon conclusion of the launch.
Launch
Launch days are inevitably long. The initial call to stations is usually 10-12 hours ahead of the scheduled liftoff time.
During this time, we’ll follow a very carefully developed script and sequence of events for both the rocket and the satellite. We’ll power up the satellite and perform checks to ensure the satellite is still healthy as well as configure the satellite for launch. The integrated countdown sequence will progress, and we’ll receive weather updates. Finally, during the terminal count, we’ll give a final go or no-go for launch.
Once cleared for launch, the Falcon Heavy rocket will deliver the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite to a very high orbit — about 700 miles below geosynchronous altitude — saving a lot of time in orbit raising.
In comparison, the rocket that launched ViaSat-2 was only capable of delivering ViaSat-2 and its co-passenger to a highly elliptical transfer orbit. From that point, it took approximately six months for ViaSat-2 to make its way from the transfer orbit to geostationary orbit. ViaSat-3 is expected to arrive in our geostationary orbital slot within 17 days of launch.
When the rocket reaches that high orbit, it will separate from the satellite. This typically happens about five hours after launch. After that, the next major event is signal acquisition — when the satellite first communicates with, and accepts commands from, a ground station. This generally occurs right after separation.
Post launch
The work isn’t over after launch. While the space team may get some time to celebrate, the satisfaction of a successful launch will quickly give way to the need to focus on deploying solar panels. These get power flowing into the satellite.
The point at which we really consider years of work to have been successful and allow ourselves a moment to breathe is after completion of in-orbit testing (IOT). IOT just repeats all the testing we performed on the ground, and a successful IOT shows that the satellite survived the ride on the rocket and has acclimated to the harsh environment of space without any performance degradations.
Only after all those steps are done can we begin the work needed to bring the satellite online, and start connecting our customers to our expanded service.
ViaSat-3 Americas gives us the opportunity to do really meaningful things at a scale we never before could — connecting the unconnected, and delivering connectivity in places where people don’t expect it. And that’s where the real excitement begins.
