Hughes JUPITER 3 Satellite Successfully Launches, Heralds the Start of a New Era of Connectivity

Credit: SpaceX

Hughes Network Systems, an EchoStar (Nasdaq: SATS) company, announced its JUPITER™ 3 ultra high-density satellite has successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from historic Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A in Florida. Also known as EchoStar XXIV, JUPITER 3 was built by Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, CA, and is engineered to deliver gigabytes of connectivity to customers across North and South America. 

On July 29 at 2:32 a.m. EDT, three hours and twenty-eight minutes after lift-off, JUPITER 3 successfully deployed from the launch vehicle. The satellite began sending and receiving its first signals, and engineers deployed the JUPITER 3 solar arrays, which unfolded in space to their full ten-story span.

“JUPITER 3 is the highest capacity, highest performing satellite we’ve ever launched. As the leading provider and inventor of satellite internet, we’re proud to herald the start of a new era of connectivity and serve more customers where cable and fiber cannot,” said Hamid Akhavan, CEO, EchoStar. “This purpose-built satellite is engineered uniquely to meet our customers’ needs and target capacity where it’s needed most, such as the most rural regions of the Americas, so they can stay connected to the applications and services they depend on every day.”  

Over the next several weeks, JUPITER 3 will travel into a geosynchronous orbit 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the Earth to its destination at the 95 degrees west orbital slot. It will then undergo extensive bus and payload testing before entering service and augmenting the Hughes JUPITER fleet with more than 500 Gbps of additional capacity.  

“Whether helping a student in Mexico expand her horizons with access to technology, connecting a farmer in Idaho with the tools to monitor his crops, or connecting a senior in Montana to her doctor via a telehealth appointment, JUPITER 3 will connect our customers to what matters most,” added Akhavan. 

With JUPITER 3, Hughes will enhance its HughesNet® offerings for customers in the U.S. and Latin America with more broadband capacity overall and higher speed plans in many markets—some with download speeds up to 100 Mbps. The company will also offer higher speed HughesNet Fusion® plans, the innovative low-latency home internet that leverages multipath technology to blend satellite and wireless technologies seamlessly into a low-latency satellite internet experience. 

With dense, high-throughput capacity across the Americas, JUPITER 3 will also support applications such as in-flight Wi-Fi, enterprise networking and cellular backhaul for mobile network operators (MNOs).