Originally Posted by
LumberJack
Viasat-3 "Americas" just launched successfully from Vandenberg. Is that the one that will enable internet on the Hawaiian routes? There's another one called "APAC" for the Asia-Pacific region but that one just canceled their contract with Arianespace and is up for bids from other launchers (probably a year or more away?)
Side note, it's pretty crazy that they are able to cover 99% of the world's population with just three satellites. They must be big, beefy suckers. The Falcon Heavy (world's second most powerful rocket) had to launch in fully expendable mode just to get it up.
It launched from pad 39A at Kennedy. The SpaceX video on the payload said the Viasat-3s aren’t much bigger than a shoebox. There were 2 other, separate payloads on that one rocket as well.