spacetoday.net: Proton launches broadband satellite

Posted: Mon, Nov 15, 2010, 6:07 AM ET (1107 GMT)
Proton launch of SkyTerra-1 (ILS)

A Proton rocket successfully launched Sunday a satellite designed to provide wireless broadband service in the US. The Proton M lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:29 pm EST (1729 GMT, 11:29 pm local time) Sunday and released the SkyTerra 1 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit a little over nine hours later. The satellite, a Boeing 702HP weighing 5,360 kilograms at launch, will operate from 101.3 degrees west in GEO. The spacecraft will deploy a 22-meter L-band antenna that will be used by Virginia-based LightSquared to provide 4G wireless communications in conjunction with a terrestrial network in the United States. The launch was the seventh commercial Proton launch of 2010 and the tenth overall this year.