Viasat releases a new large-aperture antenna class for space-to-ground communication. Photo: Viasat

Viasat has released a new large-aperture antenna class for space-to-ground communication. The company said this is its most advanced class of large-aperture antennas and capable of supporting missions including Earth observation, crewed and uncrewed missions to the Moon and Mars, and defense initiatives. 

The new class of full-motion multi-band antennas ranges from 19.7 to 24.0 meters in diameter. It features a full-motion high-dynamic pedestal with precise tracking that will support current and future multi-orbit missions. It also has advanced modems that will support emerging industry standard interfaces and software defined radio frameworks for future virtualized architectures.

Kent Leka, vice president and general manager of Antenna Systems said this class of antennas was built to support increased interest in earth observation, defense-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and deep space/lunar link communications. 

“It only requires a handful of Viasat’s large-aperture antennas strategically positioned around the globe to provide constant connectivity, which could bring increased visibility to global space and defense agencies as well as to ground station-as-a-service providers looking to deploy a network of antennas that support upcoming missions with lunar direct-to-earth service and cislunar relay for future missions to the Moon and even Mars,” Leka said.