No description available.
Launch Date
4/7/1998
Launch Site
GIK-5 LC81/23
,
Launch Vehicle
( Family)
Iridium reached an agreement with BPI France to raise new debt and delay payments owed to BPI-connected banks, allowing the company to defer bank payments originally due over the next two and a half years out to 2023 and 2024.
Iridium expects to win GMDSS approval and start offering the service by early 2020.
Iridium has launched 50 Iridium Next satellites on five SpaceX Falcon 9 launches dating back to January 2017.
On the 2018-05-21 launch, the Falcon 9 upper stage will deploy the two GRACE-FO satellites into one orbit and then relight to maneuver to a different orbit for Iridium satellite deployment.
Iridium changed its operations after the 2009 collision of the Iridium 33 satellite with the defunct Russian satellite Cosmos 2251 to work more closely with the U.S. Air Force for updated collision-risk information.
Aireon owes Iridium $200,000,000 in hosting fees.
Aireon has 50 hosted payloads in orbit and five more payloads launching on Iridium’s next mission scheduled for 2018-05-22 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The 2018-05-21 Iridium launch will use a Falcon 9 with a previously flown first stage, as did the prior two Iridium launches.
Iridium spent around $3,000,000,000 on the Iridium Next program to purchase satellites from Thales Alenia Space in Europe.
Iridium plans to launch the final 10 Iridium Next satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in November.
The first Iridium Next launch took place on 2017-01-14.
Iridium signed a letter of intent on 2018-08-30 to work with Rolls-Royce Marine to explore incorporating Iridium Certus into Rolls-Royce Marine’s suite of Ship Intelligence products.
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.
Iridium initially planned to complete the Iridium Next constellation in 2017, but manufacturing and launch delays pushed completion into 2018.
The 2018-12-30 launch was planned to use a previously flown Falcon 9 first-stage booster, representing the third Iridium mission to use a flight-proven rocket.
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.
Aireon is obligated to pay Iridium a $34,000,000 bill payable over 12.5 years for the share of the satellites’ onboard electricity required to power the Harris Corp.-built ADS-B payloads.
The final 10 Iridium Next satellites are slated to launch 2018-12-30.
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.
The $69,000,000 investment from NATS enabled Aireon to pay Iridium $8,100,000 so far 2018.