Shares of ViaSat Inc. VSAT were falling 7% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the communications company disclosed a setback that could impact one of its satellites. The company said in an afternoon release that an “unexpected event” occurred during the process of reflector deployment and that this issue could materially affect the performance of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite, which provides broadband services. ViaSat is working with the manufacturer of the reflector to assess the impact and possible ways to remedy the situation. “Contingency plans are currently being refined to minimize the economic effect to the company,” ViaSat said in its release. “Potential options include redeploying satellites from Viasat’s extensive fleet to optimize global coverage, and/or reallocating a subsequent ViaSat-3 class satellite to provide additional Americas bandwidth.” The company announced the successful launch of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite in early May, saying at the time that it would “multiply our available bandwidth, and enable faster speeds and more coverage – especially for our mobility customers.”
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