Iridium NEXT

The first 65 Iridium Next satellites were delivered to orbit by seven SpaceX Falcon 9 launches between January 2017 and July 2018.

Iridium originally expected to start launching Iridium Next in 2015.

Iridium borrowed $360,000,000 in March as a hedge against relying on Aireon hosting fees to maintain its liquidity while paying down Iridium Next construction debt.

Iridium plans to use Aireon payments to pay down its $1,800,000,000 in French export-credit loans for the 81 Iridium Next satellites ordered from Thales Alenia Space in 2010.

Iridium’s profit for the quarter ended 2018-09-30 swung to a $12,900,000 loss largely because of a $39,200,000 increase in depreciation and amortization expense due to more orbited Iridium Next satellites.

The first Iridium Next launch took place on 2017-01-14.

The December launch would enable Iridium to get the entire $3,000,000,000 Iridium Next constellation in orbit by the end of 2018, with the satellites taking until early 2019 to reach their orbital slots.

SpaceX launched the entire Iridium Next constellation on Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Iridium had 65 Iridium Next satellites in low Earth orbit replacing a first-generation constellation developed by Motorola and Lockheed Martin that launched in the late 1990s.

The last mission needed to complete Iridium Communications’ second-generation Iridium Next satellite constellation was scheduled for 2018-12-30.

Iridium initially planned to complete the Iridium Next constellation in 2017, but manufacturing and launch delays pushed completion into 2018.

Harris built more than 100 hosted payloads as part of the Iridium Next constellation.

Iridium Certus, a connectivity service based on Iridium Next, is designed to reach speeds up to 1.4 Mbps over the L-band system.

SpaceX has several other missions planned for the same year including Falcon 9 launches of another 10 Iridium Next satellites, Es’hailSat’s Es’hail-2, and the U.S. Air Force’s first GPS-3 satellite.

Iridium has 65 of 75 Thales Alenia Space-built Iridium Next satellites in orbit.

Iridium plans to launch the final 10 Iridium Next satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in November.

Harris built 230 hosted payloads for Iridium Next communications satellites and transferred that hosted-payload technology to its small satellite business.

Supplying hosted payloads for Iridium Next led Harris to develop capabilities in miniaturizing spacecraft systems, lowering costs, and accelerating development timelines.

Harris supplied hosted payloads for Iridium Next communications satellites.

The newest 10 Iridium Next satellites launched on 2018-07-25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and were scheduled to start operation over August and early September.