Internet from a small satellite in geostationary orbit? Sure, why not

Enlarge / Employees at Astranis’ headquarters in San Francisco react to deployment of the Arcturus satellite this month. (credit: Astranis)

A startup space company says it has successfully deployed and tested a kitchen-stove-sized satellite in geostationary orbit and begun delivering Internet service to Alaska.

Earlier this month, the ‘Arcturus’ satellite, built by a company named Astranis, launched as a rideshare payload on a Falcon Heavy rocket, separating a few hours after liftoff and successfully deploying its solar arrays, boom, and a subreflector.

After gaining control of the satellite, Astranis began to send commands and update the flight software before raising Arcturus’ orbit and slotting it into a geostationary position directly over Alaska. Once there, the satellite linked up with an Internet gateway in Utah and communicated with multiple user terminals in Alaska, where Astranis will provide high-speed bandwidth to an Internet service provider, Pacific Dataport.