Inmarsat launches latest generation satellite successfully from Kazakhstan

Mobile satellite services company Inmarsat yesterday confirmed the successful launch and acquisition of the third Inmarsat-4 satellite.

The Proton Breeze M is one of the few launch vehicles capable of lifting the I-4 satellite – the size of a London double-decker bus and weighing six tonnes – into geostationary transfer orbit.

The satellite was launched on a Proton Breeze M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on August 18.

The satellite is the third in the I-4 constellation, concluding a decade of development and a US$1.5 billion investment. The current constellation of two Inmarsat-4 satellites delivers mobile broadband services to 85 per cent of the world’s landmass, covering 98 per cent of the world’s population. The third I-4 will complete the global coverage for Inmarsat’s broadband services.

“The Inmarsat-4s are the world’s most sophisticated commercial network for mobile voice and data services, and the successful launch of the third I-4 allows us to complete the global coverage for our broadband services,” stated Andrew Sukawaty, CEO and chairman of Inmarsat. “Once the third I-4 is operational, Inmarsat will have the only fully-funded next-generation network for mobile satellite services.”