The world's heaviest commercial satellite, which will provide Internet service to 14 Asia-Pacific countries, soared into space Thursday aboard a European Ariane-5 rocket. The rocket blasted off from the Kourou launch center in French Guiana at 5:20 a.m. local time, AP reported. Thai operator Shinsat's IPSTAR satellite has a takeoff mass of 6.5 metric tons (7.15 short tons). The previous record for the heaviest satellite was Canadian telecommunications satellite Anik-F2, at 5.9 tons (6.5 short tons). That was launched by an Ariane-5 on July 18, 2004.