World's biggest satellite blasts off into space courtesy of Ariane 5

There was a rumble in the jungle yesterday as the TerreStar-1 satellite set off on its one-way trip into space from a launch pad in French Guyana. After storms delayed blast-off, the 7.6-ton behemoth finally went up, hitching a lift aboard euro rocket Ariane 5 at 17:52 GMT. You can see it kiss the sky in a video after the jump.

The mighty space bird is the parent satellite of the new $700 Terrestar satellite phone, which yesterday had its own, somewhat less stellar, launch back on Earth.

TerreStar-1 should be put into action in around a week's time, when its 60-foot reflector umbrella is unfurled in a procedure that should take around four hours. Once up and running, expect the satellite and its super-slimline handsets to change the worlds of drug-running, drug-busting, terrorism and counterterrorism. Forever.