Isotropic Systems’ optical beam-forming approach requires only one feed to be powered under each lens at any one time to form a single beam.
Intelsat has 23 wide-beam satellites covering Africa and high-throughput spot-beam coverage from Intelsat Epic.
Intelsat-38/Azerspace-2 includes a steerable Ku-band beam that can be repositioned over a desired area in Africa within about 20 minutes.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was deployed on the International Space Station in 2016.
NASA modified the agreement with Bigelow to use BEAM as a storage module for astronauts.
Tesat-Spacecom of Backnang, Germany is nearly finished developing two commercial laser terminals: a cubesat terminal that can beam 10 gigabits per second between spacecraft at distances up to 6,0 m and a terminal for 10 Gbps space-to-ground communications.
The $10,000,000 contract provides Viasat with leased capacity on a steerable beam on the Avanti HYLAS 4 satellite.
The sought wideband architecture would support wide-beam satellites, spot-beam satellites, on-board processing satellites, new GEO high-throughput satellites, and low Earth orbit constellations.
Inmarsat planned upgrades to the four-satellite GX-4 fleet to boost throughput per beam from between 50 and 100 Mbps to 300 Mbps by 2019.
The current Viasat phased array uses a dual-beam flat panel antenna system operating in the full Ka-frequency band with the ability to be customized for Ku-band applications.