Roscosmos reports successful launch of Satmex-8 aboard Proton-M rocket

The Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, announced the successful launch of the Proton-M rocket carrying the Satmex-8 C-/Ku-band communications satellite on Tuesday, March 26, 2013.

Roscosmos posted a live webcast of the launch, which took place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 23:06 Moscow time (1906 GMT.) According to the Russian space agency, Satmex-8 should part ways with the Briz-M booster at 8:19 Moscow time (0419 GMT) on Wednesday, March 26, 2013.

Space System/Loral built the Satmex-8 satellite for Satélites Mexicanos. The satellite carries a payload of 24 C- and 40 Ku-band transponders. It will deliver satellite broadband, video, and audio services to the Americas.

The Tuesday launch is the first successful activity this 2013 for the Proton-M series of rockets. Back in December 2012, the Briz-M booster of a similar carrier vehicle suffered a malfunction and failed to boost its payload, the Russian Yamal-402 communications satellite, into designated orbit.

ViaSat earns Guinness World Record Title as highest capacity satellite

ViaSat reached another milestone as the company’s ViaSat-1 satellite, which runs the Exede Internet service, earned the Guinness World Record title as the highest-capacity communications satellite in the world. When ViaSat-1 satellite was launched in October 2011, the spacecraft had more capacity than all the other communication satellites covering North America combined.

The world record proves that ViaSat-1 satellite provides 100 times the capacity of a typical Ku-band satellite and ten times the throughput of any Ka-band satellite launched before it over Canada and the United States.

In a statement, ViaSat Chairman and CEO Mark Dankberg said in a statement: “The Guinness World Records title is an important recognition of our breakthrough technology and a testament to the work done by our team of innovators. Best of all, it’s allowing us to deliver on our commitment to provide a high quality customer experience for satellite broadband service.”

The new system of ViaSat is a great breakthrough in the economics and quality of satellite Internet service. Aside from powering the 12 Mbps Exede Internet service, ViaSat-1 satellite is also expected to provide the bandwidth for a new generation of enterprise services, which includes in-flight broadband for commercial aviation.

The Guinness World Record title is the second major recognition that ViaSat-1 satellite earned in the past month. The first one was an indirect indication, when in the FCC’s annual benchmarking report “2013 Measuring Broadband America,” ViaSat’s Exede Internet service was ranked as number one among DSL, cable, fiber and satellite providers in surpassing advertised speeds.