Designed to beam broadband messages to smart phones from more than 22,000 miles in space, a massive spacecraft annoying off Sunday from the plains of Kazakhstan on a Proton rocket in the first phase of deploy a sole wireless communications network stretching across North America. The 11,900-pound satellite, named SkyTerra 1, will join customary terrestrial cell networks to shape a fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless system designed to reach nearly each American by the end of 2016. The ambitious plan is a project of LightSquared, a Virginia bottom firm with $2.9 billion in fresh financing from Harbinger Capital Partners of New York. LightSquared, which newly changed its name from SkyTerra, also claims a further $1.75 billion in fairness financing from other sources.
Sunday's launch will allow LightSquared to meet its promise to the Federal Communications Commission, the narrow agency organization broadband communications spectra in the United States. The Proton rockets soar into glittery skies from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1729 GMT on the blue-orange flame of six main engines. The three stage booster seemed to work flawlessly and hand over to the Breeze M upper phase less than 10 minutes after liftoff. The Breeze M ignited a little minutes later to propel the payload into a steady parking orbit about 110 miles high, according to International Launch Services, the U.S.-based firm overseeing profitable Proton flights. Four more Breeze M burns were expected to reach an orbit stretch from a low point of 3,750 miles to a peak altitude of more than 22,200 miles.
The planned leaning at spacecraft separation was 19 degrees, according to Khrunichev, the Proton rocket's prime contractor. ILS declared the launch a success in a report released late Sunday after spacecraft separation. "It is very thrilling for ILS to be a key associate for the launch of the SkyTerra 1 satellite for LightSquared, the new leader for wireless broadband," said Frank McKenna, president of ILS. SkyTerra 1 will raise its orbit with an on board liquid fueled boost engine. The satellite will eventually be positioned in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator at 101.3 degree west longitude, in view of potential customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. "At LightSquared, our goal is to transform wireless communications and our timeline to do that is very aggressive.
Sunday's launch will allow LightSquared to meet its promise to the Federal Communications Commission, the narrow agency organization broadband communications spectra in the United States. The Proton rockets soar into glittery skies from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1729 GMT on the blue-orange flame of six main engines. The three stage booster seemed to work flawlessly and hand over to the Breeze M upper phase less than 10 minutes after liftoff. The Breeze M ignited a little minutes later to propel the payload into a steady parking orbit about 110 miles high, according to International Launch Services, the U.S.-based firm overseeing profitable Proton flights. Four more Breeze M burns were expected to reach an orbit stretch from a low point of 3,750 miles to a peak altitude of more than 22,200 miles.
The planned leaning at spacecraft separation was 19 degrees, according to Khrunichev, the Proton rocket's prime contractor. ILS declared the launch a success in a report released late Sunday after spacecraft separation. "It is very thrilling for ILS to be a key associate for the launch of the SkyTerra 1 satellite for LightSquared, the new leader for wireless broadband," said Frank McKenna, president of ILS. SkyTerra 1 will raise its orbit with an on board liquid fueled boost engine. The satellite will eventually be positioned in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator at 101.3 degree west longitude, in view of potential customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. "At LightSquared, our goal is to transform wireless communications and our timeline to do that is very aggressive.
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