Viasat welcomes L2 Aviation to its Velaris ecosystem via Galaxy 1 Communications, turning satellite connectivity into certified AAM capability

L2 Avi­a­tion has joined Viasat’s Velaris ecosys­tem via Galaxy 1 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, bring­ing advanced avion­ics inte­gra­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion exper­tise to Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) and uncrewed avi­a­tion.

Until now, the indus­try sec­tor has focused pri­mar­i­ly on tech­ni­cal fea­si­bil­i­ty demon­stra­tions. How­ev­er, scal­ing oper­a­tions safe­ly depends on embed­ding con­nec­tiv­i­ty into cer­ti­fied avion­ics archi­tec­tures that can oper­ate with­in reg­u­lat­ed air­space.

By wel­com­ing L2 Avi­a­tion into the Velaris ecosys­tem, Viasat has tak­en a fur­ther step towards clos­ing that gap. L2 Avi­a­tion is a glob­al­ly estab­lished avion­ics design, engi­neer­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing and instal­la­tion spe­cial­ist with near­ly three decades of expe­ri­ence deliv­er­ing safe­ty-crit­i­cal air­craft mod­i­fi­ca­tions across com­mer­cial, busi­ness, car­go and mil­i­tary fleets.

The sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny took place fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of eVTOL Insights’ North Amer­i­ca Con­fer­ence, which was held at the Nation­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Cen­ter of Excel­lence (NAAMCE) near Spring­field, Ohio on April 30th.

Joel Kloost­er, SVP Air­craft Oper­a­tions and Safe­ty at Viasat, said: “Right now, the indus­try is focused on what it will take to enable rou­tine, reg­u­lat­ed AAM oper­a­tions, so it is clear that certification‑ready con­nec­tiv­i­ty and avion­ics inte­gra­tion must advance togeth­er.

“Bring­ing L2 Avi­a­tion into the Velaris ecosys­tem through Galaxy 1 reflects that shift from prov­ing con­cepts to build­ing oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ty. Their expe­ri­ence strength­ens how Velaris sup­ports the next phase of AAM deploy­ment, where safe­ty, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and scal­a­bil­i­ty are imme­di­ate pri­or­i­ties.”

Through the Velaris ecosys­tem, L2 will apply this exper­tise to sup­port the inte­gra­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of satel­lite com­mu­ni­ca­tions (sat­com) for uncrewed air­craft sys­tems (UAS) and AAM plat­forms as they tran­si­tion from demon­stra­tion to deploy­ment.

Viasat Velaris pro­vides glob­al satel­lite con­nec­tiv­i­ty designed specif­i­cal­ly for uncrewed and emerg­ing air­craft, enabling com­mand and con­trol and oth­er essen­tial oper­a­tional data links. The Velaris ecosys­tem con­nects con­nec­tiv­i­ty, inte­gra­tion, and ser­vice part­ners to help oper­a­tors move from ear­ly deploy­ments to com­pli­ant, scal­able oper­a­tions.

Tony Bai­ley, Pres­i­dent and Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer at L2 Avi­a­tion, said:“Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty will not scale on capa­bil­i­ty alone. It will scale when that capa­bil­i­ty is engi­neered into cer­ti­fied, oper­a­tional sys­tems that reg­u­la­tors trust and oper­a­tors can rely on every day.

“Our role with­in the Velaris ecosys­tem is to inte­grate satel­lite con­nec­tiv­i­ty into avion­ics archi­tec­tures that meet real- world cer­ti­fi­ca­tion stan­dards. Work­ing along­side Viasat Inc. and Galaxy 1 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, we are focused on deliv­er­ing sys­tems that are cer­ti­fi­able, scal­able, and ready to sup­port rou­tine AAM and uncrewed oper­a­tions.”

The move fol­lows March’s news that Galaxy 1 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Viasat to enhance the deliv­ery of Velaris with­in the indus­try.

Work­ing close­ly with Viasat, Galaxy 1 is extend­ing the reach of Velaris through its Dis­tri­b­u­tion Part­ner-as-a-Ser­vice (DPaaS) mod­el and bring­ing fur­ther experts, like L2 Avi­a­tion, into the ecosys­tem. Rather than act­ing as a tra­di­tion­al dis­trib­u­tor, Galaxy 1 pro­vides a man­aged oper­a­tional lay­er that abstracts the com­plex­i­ty of pro­vi­sion­ing, billing, com­pli­ance over­sight and inte­gra­tion into a uni­fied frame­work. 

Gino Jensen, Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer at Galaxy 1 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, said: “Advanc­ing safe, scal­able UAV and AAM oper­a­tions requires more than just connectivity—it demands a ful­ly inte­grat­ed, cer­ti­fi­able ecosys­tem.

“Our pro­gramme is focused on deliv­er­ing exact­ly that, com­bin­ing resilient mul­ti-net­work com­mu­ni­ca­tions with the oper­a­tional frame­works need­ed for reg­u­lat­ed flight. Bring­ing on board L2 Avi­a­tion as a part­ner is a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward.

He added: “Their deep exper­tise in avion­ics inte­gra­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion strength­ens our abil­i­ty to sup­port air­wor­thi­ness, com­pli­ance, and sys­tem interoperability—helping accel­er­ate the path from inno­va­tion to real-world, com­mer­cial­ly viable deploy­ment.”