Posted: Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 8:45 AM ET (1245 GMT)
A Proton rocket successfully launched Thursday a broadband communications satellite for a US company. The Proton Breeze M lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 2:48 pm EDT Wednesday (1848 GMT Wednesday, 12:48 am local time Thursday) and released the ViaSat-1 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit a little over nine hours later. ViaSat-1, a Space Systems/Loral 1300 series spacecraft, weighed 6,740 kilograms and carries a Ka-band payload. ViaSat will use the satellite at 115 degrees west in GEO to provide broadband communications services for much of the US and Canada. The spacecraft is the heaviest GEO satellite ever launched on a Proton.
