SpaceX launched the final ViaSat-3 satellite on Wednesday morning to complete Viasat’s trio of high-capacity Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites. 

The heavy-lift mission launched on a Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:13 a.m. ET. The second stage is currently en route to deliver the satellite, which is set to deploy 4 hours and 57 minutes into the mission. 

Once deployed to transfer orbit, the satellite will use electric propulsion to reach its final position in GEO. The satellite is expected to enter service by late summer 2026.

SpaceX successfully landed both Falcon Heavy side boosters after liftoff. 

The ViaSat-3 F3 satellite will be positioned over the Asia-Pacific region. Like the F2 satellite, F3 will bring more than 1 terabit per second of capacity to Viasat’s network.

Viasat recently confirmed the F2 satellite, which launched in November, is in-orbit testing. The satellite’s reflector has successfully completed bloom. Viasat expects final deployments to be completed over the next several weeks. That satellite is focused over the Americas. The first satellite suffered an anomaly with its antenna deployment in 2023. That satellite is now operational, but only delivering a fraction of the capacity that was expected.

Viasat CEO and Chairman Mark Dankberg said in a release that the third Viasat-3 satellite will provide secure, flexible capacity for customers in the Asia-Pacific region. 

“Once ViaSat-3 F3 is in service, the completed ViaSat-3 constellation will become a cornerstone of our unified, global, high-capacity network, as we move forward with a focus on sustained reductions in capital intensity and defining a common lower mass multi-orbit, multi-band satellite architecture that can be adapted for broadband or mobile satellite services with strong sovereign communications capability,” Dankberg said.