Maxar Technologies announced that the largest commercial communications satellite ever built, the JUPITER™ 3 satellite for Hughes, an EchoStar company, is performing as expected after launch yesterday. The spacecraft was manufactured by Maxar in Palo Alto, California, and launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Maxar Technologies provides comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise, geospatial intelligence.
Shortly after liftoff, the satellite, which is also called EchoStar XXIV, deployed its solar arrays and began receiving and sending signals. The 14 solar panels on board when fully deployed could span a 10-story building.
“JUPITER 3 shows the scalability of our versatile Maxar 1300™ platform, whose most powerful variants serve high-bandwidth communications missions and will drive deep space missions like NASA’s Gateway,” said Chris Johnson, Maxar’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Space. “Maxar continues to serve the GEO communications market and push the boundaries for what is possible, and JUPITER 3 shows that thinking in action.”
JUPITER 3 is an ultra high-density, high-capacity and high-throughput satellite that will join the Hughes JUPITER fleet, which includes four other Maxar-built spacecraft. The new satellite features customized architecture based on a broad range of technology advances, including industry-first Q- and V-band gateway feeder links, the miniaturization of electronics, solid state amplifiers and highly efficient spot beam antenna designs.