ViaSat Inc.'s ViaSat-1 Ka-band satellite, which with 140 gigabits per second of throughput dwarves other communications spacecraft in orbit, may soon look small as the industry moves to 200-gigabit satellites within the next year or two and then on to 400-gigabit models, Space Systems/Loral President John Celli said. Similarly, he said, today's high-definition television and its demand for satellite bandwidth is likely to be left in the dust by ultra-high-definition viewing, which provides 16 times the number of pixels needed for HDTV. In a Feb. 28 presentation to the World Space Risk Forum, Celli urged insurance underwriters to consider new technology as an industry growth driver and not as a threat to satellite reliability.
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