Written by: Editor
7/2/2009 8:14 AM

The world's largest commercial satellite was launched into space Wednesday, with a mission to provide phone service to cellular "dead zones" in North America.The satellite, owned by TerreStar Corp. of Reston, Va., blasted off from Kourou in the South American territory of French Guiana shortly before 1 p.m. CDT.Half an hour later, French satellite launcher Arianespace announced that the TerreStar-1 had separated successfully from the rocket, on its way to an orbit 22,000 miles above the Earth.There, the satellite is designed to unfurl an umbrella-like antenna of gold mesh 60 feet across, so it can pick up and relay signals from phones that are not much larger than regular cell phones.TerreStar has shown prototypes of the phones, which are similar to BlackBerrys, and like them, would have access to data and e-mail. The phones aren't on sale yet. TerreStar plans to have the system running before the end of the year.To connect to the satellite, the handsets will need a clear view of the southern sky, just like a satellite dish. When that's not available, the sets will be able to connect to regular ground-based cellular networks. TerreStar has a roaming agreement with AT&T Inc.

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