Iridium NEXT

Iridium spent $132,000,000 in capital expenditures in the past three months, most of it on Iridium Next.

Iridium Next satellites carry more powerful L-band payloads capable of providing up to 1.4 Mbps of connectivity to boats, planes, and various satellite-connected devices.

The Iridium Next program has a total budget of $3,000,000,000.

A final Iridium Next launch of 10 satellites on a Falcon 9 will complete the Iridium Next constellation and replace the first-generation system that has been operating since the late 1990s.

SpaceX launched 10 Iridium Next telecommunications satellites on 2018-07-25 using a Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX’s next mission after the Telstar 19 Vantage launch is a Falcon 9 carrying 10 Iridium Next satellites scheduled for launch on 2018-07-25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center tested hosting space weather sensors on Iridium Next commercial satellites and has 22 of 32 hosted payloads on orbit.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on 2018-05-22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying five Iridium Next satellites and two GRACE-FO Earth science satellites using a previously-flown first stage.

Iridium spent around $3,000,000,000 on the Iridium Next program to purchase satellites from Thales Alenia Space in Europe.

The 2018-05-22 Falcon 9 launch carried five Iridium Next satellites and two science satellites for NASA and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ).

Iridium completed a multiyear replacement of its first-generation constellation and expects all 66 operational Iridium Next satellites to be in service by the end of 2020.

Aireon’s aircraft-tracking sensors are hosted payloads built onto the Iridium Next satellites.

The final two Iridium Next launches will use Block 5 versions of the SpaceX Falcon 9.

The 2018-05-21 mission will carry five Iridium Next satellites and will be a rideshare with GRACE-FO, an Earth science mission developed by NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Iridium expects the remaining three launches of Iridium Next satellites to be completed by the third quarter of 2018 with the satellites moved into their final positions shortly thereafter.

Iridium has launched 50 Iridium Next satellites on five SpaceX Falcon 9 launches dating back to January 2017.

Of the $360,000,000 debt raise, $60,000,000 was allocated to Thales Alenia Space and $87,000,000 was deposited to a debt reserve account that is part of the BPI France Export Assurance credit facility used to finance Iridium Next.

SpaceX’s sixth Iridium Next launch was scheduled for 2018-05-19 carrying five Iridium Next satellites and two Earth science satellites for NASA and Germany’s Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).

Iridium’s legacy satellite constellation and its Iridium Next fleet operate using L-band frequencies.

Ten Iridium Next satellites launched on 2018-03-30 on SpaceX and were expected to begin operations within about two weeks.