Eutelsat’s giant KaSat satellite was successfully launched from Kazakhstan on Dec 26^th (at 21.51 GMT). The satellite was scheduled for separation from the rocket some 9 hours after lift-off.

The Astrium-built satellite, weighing more than six tonnes, will then require some weeks of in-orbit testing ahead of going live for operational purposes.

Kasat is unique over Europe in that it is the first craft to operate entirely in Ka-band, a set of transmission frequencies as yet largely untapped. Eutelsat will be wholesaling this bandwidth to re-sellers for consumer broadband-by-satellite services, and available from Scandinavia to the Middle East.

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