I-6 F1 is scheduled to connect its first customers later this year, with I-6 F2 set to follow in 2024.
Inmarsat has confirmed its spacecraft, I-6 F2, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station no earlier than this Friday, February 17, aboard a flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The event will be live-streamed on Inmarsats website beginning at 10:00 pm EST / 3:00 am UTC.
The launch will see Inmarsats latest sixth-generation communications spacecraft leave Earth on its way to geostationary orbit. From lift-off in Florida, the satellite will travel up and east across the Atlantic Ocean towards the west coast of Africa, reaching a top speed of almost 40,000 kph (24,800mph).
After Airbus delivered the satellite via Azores, Newfoundland, and Washington DC aboard its Beluga transportation service, the spacecraft has spent the last two weeks in Florida undergoing final testing and integration with the rocket.
I-6 F2 follows its twin, I-6 F1, which launched from Japan in late 2021. They are the worlds most sophisticated commercial communications satellites and will deliver a major upgrade in the capacity and capabilities of Inmarsats two global communications networks for more than 15 years. I-6 F1 is scheduled to connect its first customers later this year, with I-6 F2 set to follow in 2024.
Both satellites were designed and manufactured in the UK at Airbuss facilities in Stevenage and Portsmouth, prior to final assembly in Toulouse, France. They are each almost as large as a London double-decker bus and, with solar arrays opened to their full 47m width, have a wingspan similar to a Boeing 767.
The new I-6 satellites add further capabilities to Inmarsats Orchestra communications network; a global, multi-dimensional, dynamic mesh network that will redefine connectivity at scale with the highest capacity for mobility worldwide. Orchestra enables Inmarsats partners and customers to keep pace with their growing data demands and enables them to empower emerging technologies in the future, like autonomous vehicles or flying taxis.
Rajeev Suri, CEO of Inmarsat, said: The I-6 journey began six years ago, with our experts sketching out an ambitious concept of two hybrid satellites that would add significant additional capacity and capabilities for our two worldwide constellations the high-speed broadband Global Xpress network and our narrow-band Elera.
This launch is only the start of the largest investment programme in our history, all contributing towards the development of our Orchestra vision. The I-6 spacecraft will be joined by a further five major scale satellites by 2025. Each of these has the capability to deliver focused connectivity over a larger region and come with certainty in resilience, in robustness, in service quality that is unique to Inmarsat.
