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Despite delays, Facebook's ambitious plan to build a constellation of satellites isn't dead - and it could launch the first one into space as soon as March 2020

Feb 13, 2020, 02:42 IST
  • Facebook is still actively working on plans to launch satellites, despite delays.
  • Paperwork filed with the FCC show the company has quietly been updating its efforts in anticipation of a future launch.
  • One possibility is that Facebook's Athena satellite may launch on an Arianespace rocket as soon as March 2020.
  • Athena is part of Facebook's efforts to improve internet connectivity around the world.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Facebook is still determined to go to space - and it could happen within a month.

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The Silicon Valley social network firm has long harbored plans to launch a satellite, but it has been beset by yearlong delays. Public filings, however, show that Facebook is still actively preparing for a launch.

Facebook's experiments with orbital technology are intended as a way to help provide internet access to parts of the world with poor connectivity. It's part of its mission to "bring the world closer together" - or in more concrete terms, to expand the total potential market for its services and fuel its future growth and profits.

The plans indicate that despite Facebook's years of bruising scandals, its bold, extraterrestrial ambitions remain undimmed. The satellite that's planned for launch is experimental, and only the first step in a broader project to create a network of satellites dedicated to providing people around the world with internet access. If successful, it could portend a future fleet of thousands of Facebook-owned satellites, to rival the likes of Elon Musk's SpaceX or OneWeb.

Facebook has planned to go to space for years - but there have been delays

Facebook's satellite plans have faced repeated hiccups. In September 2016, Facebook contracted with Elon Musk-helmed space firm SpaceX to launch a satellite, but the rocket exploded on the launchpad before takeoff.

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The company has also been working on efforts to build low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites - distinct from the failed geosynchronous transfer orbit satellite that exploded - since at least 2016, under the codename Athena, sleuthing from IEEE Spectrum in May 2018 found and emails obtained by Wired in July 2018 confirmed.

This Athena LEO project has been run through a shell company called PointView Tech LLC, disguising Facebook's involvement. In an application submitted to the FCC in April 2018, lawyers for PointView Tech said that Athena would test new communications tech to "determine whether such satellite communications can effectively provide broadband to unserved and underserved areas throughout the world."

It was at that time aiming for a launch "in early 2019" - but that didn't happen. A spokesperson for Space Systems Loral, the company that built the satellite for Facebook, confirmed to Business Insider that the planned 2019 launch never took place.

Facebook declined to provide information about launch plans and sent Business Insider the following statment:

"While we have nothing to share about specific projects at this time, we believe satellite technology will be an important enabler of the next generation of broadband infrastructure, making it possible to bring broadband connectivity to rural regions where internet connectivity is lacking or non-existent."

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Documents indicate Facebook is still preparing to launch, and it could be as soon as March 2020

Despite the various delays and setbacks, Facebook remains committed to the satellite project, as evidenced by documents that lawyers for PointView tech filed with the FCC in December 2019.

They show that Facebook was requesting to modify its "experimental authorization" license, to add additional Earth stations (in Norway and Antarctica) for the satellite to communicate with, indicating that the firm is still making quiet preparations for an anticipated launch.

So why the delay? The problem appears to be issues with Vega, the type of rocket intended to ferry Athena into space. Vega is developed by Arianespace, a French firm, and in July 2019 suffered a launch failure that caused $415 million worth of damage. Vega rocket launches were put on hold for the rest of the year, but the company is now preparing again for launches in 2020.

We don't know the Athena launch date for sure - but one seemingly likely possibility is that Facebook's satellite will launch on a proof-of-concept Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) flight that will include 42 different satellite payloads from varying companies.

A spokesperson for Arianespace declined to share the full manifest for the rocket, but other confirmed payloads for the SSMS flight have similar low-Earth, sun-synchronous orbits to Athena of around 500km, and similar weights in the roughly 100kg range. The SSMS launch was also originally planned to launch in early 2019 but was delayed, like we know Facebook's Athena launch was. The Arianespace spokesperson said this delay was due to the issues Vega had that year, and it is now scheduled for a 2020 launch, which will have the same manifest as was planned for last year.

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In a press release issued in January 2020, Arianespace said that the SSMS Vega flight may launch "as early as March," and an unofficial online calendar compiled by RocketLaunch.Live has the launch date down as March 23, 2020. (It's not clear what the source of the site's info is, and an Arianespace spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification on the launch date.)

In short: Facebook could entering the final frontier in a little over a month.

Facebook Connectivity is experimenting with a bunch of different options

Facebook's Connectivity unit has explored numerous different ways to improve internet access, though not without some roadbumps.

Current (publcily disclosed) projects include Terragraph, a service for providing internet in urban environments; Free Basics, a service to provide free, limited internet connectivity in some markets; and the Telecom Infra Project, a collaboration with hundreds of other organisations in the telecoms industry to develop new tech.

One of its most high-profile effort was Aquila, a project to build huge, solar-powered drones that could beam wireless internet down to the ground, but it was marred by issues and Facebook ultimately ended its attempts to build the aircraft. (It continues to work on high-altitude platform station (HAPS) tech, which is fitted on such aircraft, however.)

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In 2016, Facebook wrote to the FCC about its Connectivity plans, spelling out this multi-strand approach: "Connecting the unconnected will require a wide variety of technical solutions. For example, in dense urban areas, wireless terrestrial systems can efficiently serve end users and support backhaul links. In less dense areas, such as rural areas, where broadband infrastructure must be deployed over wide areas, using high altitude solar-powered aircraft to provide backhaul-type links to terrestrial aggregation points may be part of the optimal solution.

It added: "And, in remote, sparsely populated areas, where there are significant gaps in infrastructure and the economic barriers of installing that infrastructure are considerably higher, satellite services may provide the most efficient means to connect."

For now, there's just one experimental Athena satellite, and it will have a working life of just two years. IEEE Spectrum pointed out in May 2018 that for it to be functionally useful for ordinary people's connectivity needs, it will need to launch thousands.

Do you work at Facebook Got a tip? Contact this reporter using a non-work device via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice) or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). PR pitches by standard email only, please.

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