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The Inmarsat-4, or I4-F3 broadband
satellite to its friends, is a big satellite. Almost as big as a double
decker bus and with an unfurled solar wingspan as wide as a football field,
it needed an appropriately big ride into space. And so it hitched onto a
Proton Rocket, a 58m-high, 700-ton monster used for sat positioning since
1996, but before that, used in the 1960's to visit planets for scientific
research and deliver parts of the International Space Station and Mir Space
Station. The flight was perfect. [Baikonur
Campaigns via BBC via io9]

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