I would say the problem you are experiencing is a combination of the SIP dialogue between the endpoints coupled with the delay over the satellite network. Obviously during an INVITE, the INVITE is then relayed to the remote party, they then negotiate, they then answer, the PBX then tells the remote party they've answered etc etc, you get the picture. If the average delay over the network is 3000ms, then each message is going to take 3s, you can see why a delay is possible during call setup.
In terms of fixes - I'm not aware of anything immediately obvious that would speed things up to be honest. The only thing I can think of is to play some kind of media until the remote RTP stream is received to give the impression they still haven't answered.