International Launch Services (ILS) will launch the ViaSat-1satellite on an ILS Proton rocket, under a new contract, ILS announced.
Space Systems Loral is building the ViaSat satellite, which is to launch in the first half of 2011 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
ViaSat-1 is a high capacity Ka-band spot beam satellite, which is expected to be the highest capacity of all current and planned North American satellites with 10 times the throughput of any other Ka-band satellite, according to ILS. The satellite will provide broadband Internet services to customers and businesses across North America.