Airbus Defence and Space considered the Inmarsat-6 F2 anomaly an unprecedented event because no previous Airbus-built spacecraft had suffered an in-orbit failure.
Airbus manufactured the Inmarsat-6 F2 satellite.
Inmarsat-6 F2’s four gigabits per second of Ka-band capacity was added to provide additional flexibility to the legacy Inmarsat Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band fleet.
Inmarsat-6 F2 was launched on 2023-02-18.
Viasat Inc.'s Inmarsat-6 F2 (I6 F2) satellite was launched on 2023-02-18.
Inmarsat-6 F2 launched on 2023-02-17 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The booster used on the Inmarsat-6 F2 launch previously supported a crewed flight to the International Space Station and the launch of a GPS III satellite.
A Falcon 9 carrying the British company’s Inmarsat-6 F2 satellite lifted off at 10:59 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
Inmarsat-6 F2’s Ka-band beams are designed to address connectivity hotspots over the Atlantic Ocean.
Inmarsat-6 F2 will use onboard electric propulsion to reach its geostationary orbit slot over the Atlantic Ocean over the next several months.
SpaceX launched the Inmarsat-6 F2 satellite for Inmarsat to provide more capacity for partnerships in the emerging direct-to-device market.
Both Inmarsat-6 F1 and Inmarsat-6 F2 were built by Airbus and are equipped with a hybrid Ka-band and L-band payload.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying Inmarsat-6 F2 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on 2023-02-17 with liftoff at 10:59 p.m. Eastern.
Inmarsat-6 F2 will use onboard electric propulsion to reach its geostationary orbit slot over the Atlantic Ocean over the next several months.
Inmarsat-6 F1 and Inmarsat-6 F2 each feature a 9-meter aperture L-band antenna and six multi-beam Ka-band antennas.
The Airbus-built Inmarsat-6 F2 geostationary telecommunications satellite arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on board an Airbus Beluga ready for its launch in February.
Inmarsat has commissioned ten geo-telecommunications satellites from Airbus including Inmarsat-6 F1 and Inmarsat-6 F2.
Inmarsat-6 F2 will be the ninth Eurostar spacecraft in orbit that is equipped with electric propulsion for orbit raising.
Inmarsat-6 F1 and Inmarsat-6 F2 carry modular digital processors that provide full routing flexibility over up to 8,000 channels and dynamic power allocation to over 200 spot beams in L-band per spacecraft.
Inmarsat-6 F2 will be the 58th Eurostar E3000 spacecraft built by Airbus.