World’s most advanced communications satellite set for night flight this Friday

Inmarsat, a world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, has confirmed its spacecraft, I-6 F2, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station no earlier than this week aboard a flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The event will be livestreamed on Inmarsat’s website from 10:00pm EST / 3:00am UTC. 

The launch will see Inmarsat’s latest 6th generation communications spacecraft leave Earth on its way to geostationary orbit. From lift off in Florida, the satellite will travel up and east across the Atlantic Ocean towards the west coast of Africa, reaching a top speed of almost 40,000kph (24,800mph).

After Airbus delivered the satellite via Azores, Newfoundland, and Washington D.C. aboard its unique ‘Beluga’ transportation service, the spacecraft has spent the last two weeks in Florida undergoing final testing and integration with the rocket. 

I-6 F2 follows its ‘twin’, I-6 F1, which launched from Japan in late 2021. They are the world’s most sophisticated commercial communications satellites and will deliver a major upgrade in the capacity and capabilities of Inmarsat’s two global communications networks for more than 15 years. I-6 F1 is scheduled to connect its first customers later this year, with I-6 F2 set to follow in 2024.

Both satellites were designed and manufactured in the UK at Airbus’s facilities in Stevenage and Portsmouth, prior to final assembly in Toulouse, France. They are each almost as large as a London double-decker bus and, with solar arrays opened to their full 47m width, have a ‘wingspan’ similar to a Boeing 767.

The new I-6 satellites add further capabilities to Inmarsat’s ORCHESTRA communications network; a unique, global, multi-dimensional, dynamic mesh network that will redefine connectivity at scale with the highest capacity for mobility worldwide. ORCHESTRA enables Inmarsat’s partners and customers to keep pace with their growing data demands and enables them to empower emerging technologies in the future, like autonomous vehicles or flying taxis. 

Rajeev Suri, CEO, Inmarsat, said “The I-6 journey began six years ago, with our experts sketching out an ambitious concept of two hybrid satellites that would add significant additional capacity and capabilities for our two worldwide constellations – the high-speed broadband Global Xpress network and our narrow-band ELERA. 

“This launch is only the start of the largest investment programme in our history, all contributing towards the development of our ORCHESTRA vision. The I-6 spacecraft will be joined by a further five major scale satellites by 2025. Each of these has the capability to deliver focused connectivity over a larger region and come with certainty – in resilience, in robustness, in service quality – that is unique to Inmarsat.”

Inmarsat delivers world leading, innovative, advanced and exceptionally reliable global, mobile communications across the world – in the air, at sea and on land - that are enabling a new generation of commercial, government and mission-critical services. Inmarsat is powering the digitalisation of the maritime industry, making operations more efficient and safer than ever before. It is driving a new era of inflight passenger services for aviation, while ensuring that aircraft can fly with maximum efficiency and safety. Furthermore, Inmarsat is enabling the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and enabling the next wave of world-changing technologies that will underpin the connected society and help build a sustainable future. And now Inmarsat is developing the first-of-its-kind, multi-dimensional communications network of the future, ORCHESTRA. In November 2021, Inmarsat and Viasat announced the planned combination of the two companies, to create a new leader in global communications.

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