A US heavenly body carrying the greatest blurb receiver mirror ever put in space has been launched successfully from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
The netting make up on the Skyterra-1 booster is 22m (72ft) across.
It will send signals for a new 4G-LTE mobile phone and information network for North America run by Lightsquared.
Callers whose networks are scored equally in to the network will be automatically switched to a heavenly body if they are out of operation of a terrestrial mast.
Lightsquared is the ultimate bid to try to settle a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network in the US.
Two formerly ventures ran in to financial problems. Both Terrestar and DBSD North America had to look for authorised insurance beneath Chapter 11 failure manners whilst they sought to remodel massive debts built up as they rolled out their systems.
LightSquared has betrothed a not similar approach. It says its business will be indiscriminate only. It will be selling ability to carriers who instruct to offer go-anywhere connectivity to their consumers, be they phone or information users.
The network will be able of ancillary smartphone-sized devices, it says.
Under a report granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the firm has to have a belligerent network of terrestrial stations in place to offer 90% of the US race by the finish of 2015.
The Skyterra-1 heavenly body was launched from Baikonur on a Proton space station at 2329 local time on Sunday (1729 GMT)
The 5.4-tonne heavenly body will be located at 101.3 degrees West longitude and is approaching to have a service life of 15 years.
The launch was the 10th Proton flight of 2010, and the seventh organized by International Launch Services, the firm that sells the Russian space station to blurb operators who must be obtain satellites in to orbit.
The 22m-antenna on Skyterra-1 should be deployed by the finish of the month. A second satellite, Skyterra-2, will follow in 2011.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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