Astranis satellites NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo enter service for Anuvu over the United States. Photo: Astranis

Two Astranis satellites launched in December dedicated to in-flight connectivity provider Anuvu have entered service, Astranis announced Thursday. 

The two MicroGEO satellites, NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo, arrived in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) in early July after a six-month orbit raise. Astranis said the satellites are operating at full capacity and in service over the United States. 

The satellites launched on a dedicated Falcon 9 mission in late December, along with two other Astranis satellites, UtilitySat and AGILA, a communications satellite for the Philippines. 

UtilitySat — a replacement for the first Astranis satellite Arcturus which had a partial failure — experienced an issue with its electric thrust system after launch and it has not reached GEO. Astranis CEO John Gedmark told Via Satellite that Astranis has determined the root cause and how to fix the issue for satellites moving forward. “We are still troubleshooting it to see if we can get that one to GEO as well,” he added.

The AGILA satellite is currently arriving in GEO, Gedmark said. 

Astranis offers a dedicated satellite model, in which one customer can have access to all of the capacity of the satellite. In the case of NuView Alpha and NuView Bravo, the two satellites are providing coverage of the entire continental U.S. for Anuvu. 

“There are a lot of customers and countries who really want not just a dedicated satellite, but we think of it as a dedicated private network. They are getting an end-to-end system, all of the control, the security and the independence that comes from having their own dedicated system,” Gedmark said. 

He added that customers want the control of how capacity is allocated, and the level of insight into the network that comes with a dedicated satellite. Increasing geopolitical tensions are driving more interest into this model as well. For example, Taiwan’s largest telco Chunghwa Telecom purchased a dedicated MicroGEO earlier this year. 

“We’re seeing conflicts in a way that we didn’t see 10 years ago. That has driven a very different set of requirements for customers,” Gedmark said. “I think [it] has resulted in increased customer demand for what we’re able to provide – the independence,  the security, and control over the systems that we’re putting in place.”