* Astronomy

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RE: ViaSat-1 satellite

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Viasat broadband 'super-satellite' set for launch

One of the most powerful satellites ever built is about to go into orbit on a Russian Proton rocket.
The Viasat-1 spacecraft will deliver broadband services to customers in the US and Canada.
With a total data throughput in excess of 140 Gbps, the satellite has more capacity than all other communication satellites over North America combined.
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L minus 1 hour

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Live Webcast

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ViaSat-1

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The ILS Proton rocket with the ViaSat 1 satellite is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 18:48 GMT.

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ViaSat-1, the highest capacity satellite in the world, is designed to transform the economics and quality of service for satellite broadband.
With 140 Gbps total throughput capacity, the new satellite can serve the accelerating growth in bandwidth demand for multimedia Internet access over the next decade. The download and upload speeds available on ViaSat-1 will be much faster than anything previously offered in the satellite industry, and will transform the quality of satellite broadband.
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Mission Overview Brochure (PDF)

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Space Systems/Loral, a provider of commercial satellites, today announced that the high throughput broadband satellite that it built for ViaSat Inc., arrived today at the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan, where it will be launched aboard an ILS Proton Breeze M vehicle provided by International Launch Services (ILS). The all Ka-band satellite uses multiple spot beams and frequency reuse to maximise capacity for broadband service in North America.
ViaSat-1 represents the next generation of broadband satellites. It is expected to dramatically increase the amount of capacity available to serve more customers with faster data rates and higher data volume for a better broadband experience.
When launched, ViaSat-1, which will be positioned at 115.1 degrees West longitude, is expected to provide more than 100 gigabits per second throughput, mostly for use in the West Coast of the U.S. and east of the Texas panhandle. The satellite has 72 spot beams, with 63 in the U.S. and nine over Canada. The Canadian beams are owned by satellite operator Telesat and will be used for the Xplornet broadband service to consumers in rural Canada.

Source Space Systems/Loral