Astranis Eyes Launch of 'Swiss Army Knife' GEO This Year

Satellite communications company Astranis plans to launch its UtilitySat, a multi-mission geostationary orbit satellite, by year's end, CEO John Gedmark posted Wednesday on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. He said the UtiltySat launch will be part of a Falcon 9 mission that also will put up a pair of communications satellites for in-flight connectivity and one for Peru. UtilitySat will be "the Swiss Army Knife of satellites," capable of multiple broadband connectivity missions using the Ku, Ka, and Q/V bands, said Gedmark. He said it plans to launch numerous UtilitySats in coming years, with use cases including bridge capacity for a customer waiting for a dedicated satellite, as an on-orbit spare, or as an extra, or for providing surge capacity. "We see a future where customers will be able to call up extra capacity on demand to augment their existing capacity needs," he said.