Originally Posted by
LLStarks
3-fold problem
- Viasat won't launch anything else for a decade at this point. F1 will never be fixed or replaced. The company is hoping their LEO and GEO partners will bail them out for any coverage gaps or speed/capacity gaps. Such gaps will be extensive for Arctic routes and trans-European overflight.
- No polar Amazon Leo for at least a decade which will compound the Arctic issue.
- Delta is committed to the sunk cost for both. Planes might require multiple antennas instead of just a single one for fast, global Starlink coverage that they could have today.
Viasat has stated previously there were no plans to replace the F1 satellite. The recent Inmarsat aquisition most likely will provide sufficient additional EMEA coverage that they are able to make due with F1 in it's current state.