Global broadband

Last Friday, Inmarsat’s I-4 satellite was successfully sent into space from Cape Canaveral, FL on board an Atlas V rocket.

The size of a London double-decker bus and weighing about six tons, the I-4 will deliver a 3G-compatible broadband data service to mobile users. The satellite is 60 times more powerful, and has 20 times more capacity than its predecessors, the Inmarsat-3 satellites.

The satellite will now undergo a complex series of post-launch tests and manoeuvres before being fully deployed in geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Indian Ocean at 64 degrees east. The satellite footprint will cover Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, most of Asia Pacific, and Western Australia.

The main body of the new satellite was constructed in Britain. The bus, the onboard rocket engine that positions the spacecraft in orbit (also known as the service module), was built at the EADS Astrium facility in Stevenage. The payload - the satellite's communications powerhouse - was assembled at the company's facility in Portsmouth.