Article Posted on : - Nov 24, 2009

An Atlas V rocket with the commercial Intelsat-14 satellite launches from Cape Canaveral on Monday. Image credit: Lockheed Martin

CAPE CANAVERAL (BNS): US launched a commercial telecommunication satellite, Intelsat 14 (IS-14), on board an Atlas V booster rocket provided by Lockheed Martin from here on Monday.

According to Intelsat, the leading provider of fixed satellite services, the IS-14 spacecraft will provide high-powered video and data services through its 40 C-band and 22 Ku-band payload to customers across the Americas, Europe and Africa.

IS-14 is also part of an 11-satellite replenishment campaign and will replace Intelsat’s 1R satellite once it enters service at the 315 degrees east longitude orbital location.

The spacecraft also carries a hosted payload for the Internet Router in Space, or IRIS programme, for Cisco.

“We believe IRIS will extend broadband services on demand in the sky. The Cisco IRIS payload will merge communications received on various frequency bands and transmit them to multiple users,” said Steve Boutelle, Vice President, Cisco Global Government Solutions Group.

“Once in service, the IRIS payload will support network services for voice, video and data communications, enabling US military units and allied forces to communicate with one another using Internet Protocol (IP) and existing ground equipment,” he said.