Soyuz launch deploys last of O3b’s first-generation broadband satellites

The launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with four more satellites Thursday to join SES’s O3b broadband network will help satisfy growing bandwidth demands in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific islands until the deployment of a new generation of upgraded spacecraft in 2021, SES officials said. The quartet of broadband satellites lifted off from the Guiana Space Center on the northeastern shore of South America at 1703:37 GMT (1:03:37 p.m. EDT; 2:03:37 p.m. French Guiana time) Thursday aboard a Soyuz ST-B rocket after a 33-minute delay to allow extra time to conduct final checks on ground systems at the tropical spaceport. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 5)