The world’s largest commercial communications satellite was catapulted into space Friday night by SpaceX’s most powerful operational rocket from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A in Florida.
The Jupiter 3 communication satellite, developed by Hughes Network Systems, was launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket at 2304 ET.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/7fep4mFSOi
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 29, 2023
Around 0232 ET Saturday, three hours and twenty-eight minutes after lift-off, Jupiter 3 separated from the launch vehicle. “The satellite began sending and receiving its first signals, and engineers deployed the JUPITER 3 solar arrays, which unfolded in space to their full ten-story span,” according to Hughes Network Systems, a unit of satellite communications company EchoStar Corp.
Deployment of @HughesConnects JUPITER 3 confirmed pic.twitter.com/G2Xhcumnb2
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 29, 2023
“JUPITER 3 is the highest capacity, highest performing satellite we’ve ever launched. As the leading provider and inventor of satellite internet, we’re proud to herald the start of a new era of connectivity and serve more customers where cable and fiber cannot,” said EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan.
Akhavan continued, “This purpose-built satellite is engineered uniquely to meet our customers’ needs and target capacity where it’s needed most, such as the most rural regions of the Americas, so they can stay connected to the applications and services they depend on every day.”
JUPITER 3 will travel into a geosynchronous orbit 22,236 miles above Earth over the next several weeks “before entering service and augmenting the Hughes JUPITER fleet with more than 500 Gbps of additional capacity,” Hughes network said.
“Whether helping a student in Mexico expand her horizons with access to technology, connecting a farmer in Idaho with the tools to monitor his crops, or connecting a senior in Montana to her doctor via a telehealth appointment, JUPITER 3 will connect our customers to what matters most,” added Akhavan.
JUPITER 3 will allow “HughesNet” to offer more broadband capacity and higher speed plans with download speeds up to 100 Mbps across the US and Latin America. The satellite internet technology is similar to SpaceX’s Starlink, which is far superior to HughesNet in terms of offering higher up and down speeds as well as some plans have no data caps.
HughesNet, Starlink, and other space internet providers are spearheading the future of connectivity by constructing vast networks of satellites in orbit. Their actions signify that the next frontier of internet service will be space-based.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/29/2023 – 09:55
