Arianespace, a private space company, announced Wednesday that it had launched the “largest commercial communications satellite”, known as TerreStar-1, into space.

According to Arianespace, an Ariane-5 rocket blasted off from the European Space Agency’s launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana on Wednesday at 2.52 pm local time. The rocket carried with it TerreStar-1, billed by the company as the largest commercial communications satellite in the world. The satellite was released into the orbit twenty minutes after launch. The Ariane-5 can carry a payload or upto 10 metric tons.

TerreStar Corp, the company behind the satellite, hopes that with this launch it will be able to provide better hybrid telecommunication services to cellular and satellite handsets throughout United States and Canada. Industry experts estimate that the entire cost of the launch including satellite, ESA services and insurance is sure to have crossed $500 million.

The TerreStar satellite weighed around 6.9 metric tons at take-off and was manufactured by US-based Loral Space & Communications Inc. Wednesday’s launch of TerreStar was the thirty-first straight successful lift-off for Arianespace. Arianespace is a reputed space transport company based in Paris and thirty percent of it is owned by the European space giant EADS.