G1 Satellite
The ICO G1 satellite was built by Space Systems/Loral, based on the Loral 1300 platform. A contract to launch the satellite was signed with Lockheed Martin, who announced plans to launch the satellite on an Atlas V launch vehicle, flying in the 421 configuration. Launch, from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station occurred at 20:12:00 GMT on April 4, 2008. The satellite separated from the carrier rocket 30 minutes and 49 seconds later, completing a successful launch. It is currently in a nominal geosynchronous orbit. At the time, ICO G1 was the largest commercial satellite ever launched. A larger satellite based on the same Loral 1300 platform, TerreStar-1, was successfully launched on July 1, 2009.
Read more about this topic: ICO Global Communications
Famous quotes containing the word satellite:
“Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)