Galaxy 1 and Viasat Move UAV Connectivity Platform into Commercial Production

Galaxy 1 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Viasat have agreed to move their joint­ly devel­oped sup­port plat­form for uncrewed air­craft ser­vices into com­mer­cial pro­duc­tion, fol­low­ing two years of devel­op­ment, inte­gra­tion and test­ing.

The agree­ment will extend Viasat’s Velaris satel­lite com­mu­ni­ca­tions ecosys­tem, which pro­vides con­nec­tiv­i­ty and oper­a­tional ser­vices for uncrewed and autonomous avi­a­tion. The plat­form uses Viasat’s L‑band satel­lite net­work to sup­port appli­ca­tions includ­ing logis­tics and med­ical deliv­ery air­craft, air taxis and inspec­tion plat­forms oper­at­ing in remote loca­tions.

Under the agree­ment, Galaxy 1 will pro­vide the oper­a­tional and com­mer­cial infra­struc­ture intend­ed to help Viasat’s part­ners deploy and man­age satel­lite-enabled ser­vices at scale. Its respon­si­bil­i­ties will include part­ner onboard­ing, ser­vice pro­vi­sion­ing, billing and report­ing, as well as net­work infra­struc­ture and remote ter­mi­nal man­age­ment.

The plat­form will also sup­port the acti­va­tion, mon­i­tor­ing and con­fig­u­ra­tion of uncrewed air­craft ser­vices, along­side inci­dent man­age­ment and ser­vice restora­tion. Appli­ca­tion pro­gram­ming inter­faces (APIs) will allow inte­gra­tion with third-par­ty UAV appli­ca­tions and part­ner sys­tems, while automa­tion tools are intend­ed to improve oper­a­tional vis­i­bil­i­ty and man­age equip­ment through­out its life­cy­cle.

The com­pa­nies said the two-year devel­op­ment pro­gramme had val­i­dat­ed the oper­a­tional and com­mer­cial capa­bil­i­ties need­ed for pro­duc­tion ser­vice deliv­ery. The tran­si­tion is intend­ed to pro­vide a frame­work for expand­ing Velaris beyond basic satel­lite con­nec­tiv­i­ty, giv­ing air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers, oper­a­tors and ser­vice providers a more inte­grat­ed way to man­age ser­vices.

Viasat has been devel­op­ing Velaris as a part­ner ecosys­tem involv­ing air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers, oper­a­tors, tech­nol­o­gy providers and oth­er ser­vice com­pa­nies. The plat­form is aimed at address­ing the con­nec­tiv­i­ty and oper­a­tional require­ments of emerg­ing uncrewed avi­a­tion mar­kets, par­tic­u­lar­ly where air­craft oper­ate beyond the reach of con­ven­tion­al ter­res­tri­al net­works.

Galaxy 1 chief com­mer­cial offi­cer Mar­tyn Dur­rant said the pro­duc­tion agree­ment marked a step towards estab­lish­ing the com­mer­cial and oper­a­tional infra­struc­ture need­ed for a scal­able UAV and advanced air mobil­i­ty sec­tor.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

See Full Bio