ViaSat-1 Comm Satellite Launch Set for October 19

Launch of the ViaSat-1 high-capacity, Ka-band, spot-beam satellite has been set for Wednesday, October 19 at 18:48 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Proton M launch vehicle. The satellite will enable the broadband multimedia Internet access that ViaSat, of Carlsbad, Calif., expects to provide over the next decade to meet an accelerating growth in airborne bandwidth demand.

ViaSat-1 has planned coverage of North America and Hawaii carrying WildBlue services for the U.S. and Xplomet in Canada. ViaSat says that, with an estimated data rate of 140 Gbps, it will become the highest-capacity satellite in the world once safely on orbit. The ViaSat-1 launch can be viewed on the ViaSat update page at www.viasat.com/viasat-1-launch.