TerreStar-1 is up

TerreStar-1 was successfully launched today by an Ariane-5.

This is the largest commercial satellite ever. It has a dish about sixty-feet across. It will use Ground Based Beam Forming such that complex equipment that produces about 500 spot beams is left on the ground.

The system will work with newly-designed Smartphones not any bigger than normal. No big antenna required. High speed data. Mobile Internet. Etc.

Coverage is to be most of North America, right up into northern Canada (~70N).

For some people, it'll change 'everything'.