Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer Emeritus, Viasat
Steve Hart's journey to transforming the satellite industry began with service as a U.S. Air Force imagery intelligence specialist. After earning degrees in mathematics from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and UC San Diego, he worked as a computer security analyst supporting the National Security Agency and U.S. Navy, and then as a staff engineer creating software and algorithms for secure network systems. In May 1986, along with Mark Dankberg and Mark Miller, he co-founded Viasat with $300,000 in venture capital, establishing the technical direction that would guide the company for nearly four decades.
Hart's first transformative contribution was working with Mark Dankberg to create the first Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) system for government satellites. Before DAMA, military communications channels were manually assigned and could never accommodate large numbers of users. Hart's innovation multiplied available access by orders of magnitude, enabling tens of thousands of military users to share satellite resources efficiently. This breakthrough became the architectural foundation for nearly all subsequent military satellite communications systems and established Viasat's credibility as a leader in satellite ground technology.
Recognizing the power of secure internet networking years before the defense community, Hart led the creation of Viasat's Type-1 internet encryption technology. His vision delivered truly secure networking from the internet backbone to soldiers in the field, launching what would become one of Viasat's most successful business areas. Today, Viasat's network encryption systems protect critical government networks across satellite and terrestrial systems, playing a vital role in national security infrastructure.
Hart pioneered commercial satellite communications by leading the engineering team that created Starwire, the first commercial VSAT system supporting full Internet routing using IP as its foundation. While competitors required inefficient point-to-point circuits or hub-and-spoke architectures, Hart's system enabled companies to connect corporate networks across unlimited geographic distances. IP-based networking, which Hart championed while much of the world was just starting to adopt the internet, is now the industry standard.
As technical leader for ViaSat-1, the first high-capacity satellite system, Hart led a team that developed the ground network algorithms and overall architecture that enabled the satellite's unprecedented 140 Gbps throughput—ten times any previous Ka-band satellite. This innovation completely changed how satellites were valued, making high-volume data delivery paramount. Viasat's work enabled affordable high-bandwidth Wi-Fi to commercial airlines and brought high-speed internet to millions in rural and underserved areas, delivering telemedicine, online education, and economic opportunities to communities beyond terrestrial infrastructure's reach.
Named 2004 Outstanding Executive by the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, Hart holds numerous patents in satellite networking and communications security. Beyond technology, he founded Vpartners, Viasat's employee volunteering program, and has championed STEM education initiatives, extending his impact to developing the next generation of engineers and scientists.
