Ipstar launched successfully

Stuart Corner
Friday, 12 August 2005 16:03

IT Industry - Strategy

Ipstar-1, the world's largest commercial satellite, was successfully launched on 11 August aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Ipstar-1, the world's largest commercial satellite, was successfully launched on 11 August aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The satellite will take around 10 days to reach it geostationary orbit location and commercial services are expected to commence around the beginning of November.

Ipstar-1, also known as Thaicom 4 has been designed to provide broadband services to both enterprises and consumers throughout 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a total data throughput capacity of over 45 Gbps and is designed to provide users with data speeds of up to 4Mbps on the forward link and 2Mbps on the return link. It will use its seven on-board antennas to create 112 spot and regional beams in the Ku and Ka bands.