ViaSat To Help European Space Agency Push High-Capacity Satellite Growth

ViaSat and the European Space Agency (ESA) will jointly work on an effort to speed up high-capacity satellite products and applications, the two said in a news release Thursday. To start the three-year High Capacity Satellite Applications Factory Initiative (HSC Initiative), Belgium, Switzerland and the U.K. will put up close to $34 million while ViaSat will launch an online portal, the Space Hub, for information sharing among the ESA, European nations and others, they said. ViaSat also potentially could provide technical support for projects chosen under the HCS Initiative, they said. Keven Lippert, ViaSat executive vice president-Space Systems and Corporate Development, said the nascent HCS industry "need[s] constant innovation, fresh thinking and investment from across industry, academia and government. By partnering with ESA and others on the High Capacity Satellite Applications Factory Initiative, we are making a commitment to energise development and reduce time-to-market for new High Capacity Satellite technologies, applications and services across Europe."