CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – Telesat confirmed the successful launch of its new Telstar 19 Vantage high throughput satellite (HTS) Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Telstar 19 Vantage will operate from Telesat’s prime orbital location of 63 degrees West, the same as Telesat’s highly utilized Telstar 14R satellite. The bird will bring a new level of performance and value for satellite broadband requirements on land, at sea and in the air, with distinct zones of coverage across the Americas and Atlantic that combine broad regional beams and high throughput spot beams in Ku-band with additional HTS spot beams in Ka-band, says the release.
Telesat said that it has long-term contracts for the entire Ka-band capacity of Telstar 19 Vantage over Northern Canada, including providing Northwestel with the HTS spot beam capacity required to enhance broadband connectivity for all 25 communities in Nunavut, as we reported earlier. Hughes Network Systems has a 15-year agreement for Telstar 19 Vantage Ka-band capacity to boost its broadband satellite services in five South American countries.
“The pre-launch agreements Telesat has secured with Hughes and Bell Canada, combined with strong interest from other leading satellite service providers across the Americas and Atlantic, confirm that Telstar 19 Vantage delivers superior performance and value for today’s bandwidth intensive applications,” said Telesat president and CEO Dan Goldberg, in the news release. “The design and capabilities of Telstar 19 Vantage enable our customers to provide more advanced satellite broadband to their end users.”
Telstar 19 Vantage is expected to enter commercial service this summer after it has successfully completed orbit raising and comprehensive in-orbit testing. The satellite has a 15 year design life.
