[SatNews] The launch date for the Company's new satellite has just been announced...

ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) has announced that the launch of the ViaSat-1 high-capacity satellite is scheduled for Wednesday, October 19th, at 11:48 a.m. PDT and 2:48 p.m. EDT.  The satellite will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:48 am local time (October 20th) in Baikonur. The fueling of the ViaSat-1 spacecraft was completed on Monday, October 3rd. In the next phase of pre-launch preparations, the satellite will be mated to the launch vehicle payload adapter to begin the joint operations phase of the program.  The combined assembly will then be joined with the Breeze M upper stage in preparation for mating to the Proton launch vehicle early next week.

ViaSat-1 is designed to transform the economics and quality of service that satellite broadband can provide, with the capacity to serve the accelerating growth in bandwidth demand for multimedia Internet access over the next decade and enable satellite to compete with terrestrial alternatives. The high-capacity Ka-band spot beam satellite has planned coverage over North America and Hawaii, enabling a variety of new, high-speed broadband services for WildBlue in the U.S. and Xplornet in Canada. With a capacity estimated at 140 Gbps, ViaSat-1 will become the highest capacity satellite in the world once it is safely on orbit. For more information and to watch a webcast of the launch, visit the ILS mission page at www.ilslaunch.com/mission-control/mission-viasat-1 or the ViaSat update page at www.viasat.com/viasat-1-launch.