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Iridium declared the completion of its $3,000,000,000 constellation refresh in early February with the activation of the final two spacecraft needed to complete the L-band voice-and-data network.
Iridium received a $2,500,000 contract under the Defense Experimentation Using the Commercial Space Internet program.
The Falcon 9 booster that launched on 2019-02-21 was making its third flight after prior missions in July carrying 10 Iridium Next satellites and in October carrying a radar satellite for Argentina’s CONAE.
The final two Iridium Next satellites entered service on 2019-02-05 at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
SpaceX launched the entire Iridium Next constellation on eight Falcon 9 launches over two years, with the final mission occurring on 2019-01-11.
The legacy Iridium fleet built by Motorola and Lockheed Martin was designed mainly for voice communications.
By the time SpaceX launched the first Iridium Next satellites in January 2017, Iridium had already run out of spares and had lost one operational satellite.
Iridium announced a transceiver on 2019-01-06 that provides 35 times the data speed of existing devices.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the final set of Iridium Next satellites launched on 2019-01-11 under an existing FAA license.
Iridium has launched a new suite of connectivity products and services that use the $3,000,000,000 Iridium Next satellite constellation.
Aireon used part of the new funds to pay satellite operator Iridium $35,000,000 before the end of 2018 for hosting its sensor payloads on the Iridium Next constellation.
Iridium borrowed $360,000,000 last year to pay down its debt without depending on Aireon payments.
Aireon fell behind on making the $200,000,000 in hosting payments it owes Iridium.
SpaceX launched the last 10 orbital Iridium Next satellites on 2019-01-11, bringing the number of Iridium Next satellites in space to 75, of which 66 are operational and nine are spares.
Iridium expects Certus revenue to reach approximately $100,000,000 by the end of 2021.
Iridium applied the $35,000,000 it received from Aireon directly to the $1,800,000,000 Iridium borrowed from the French export-credit agency Coface (now BPI France Assurance Export) to help finance Iridium Next.
Iridium and SpaceX originally expected the Iridium Next missions to take place from 2015 to 2017.
Iridium first signed a contract with SpaceX in 2010 to orbit 72 Iridium Next satellites.
The Iridium Next satellites replace Iridium’s legacy fleet that was built by Motorola and Lockheed Martin and launched about 20 years earlier.
The 2019-01-11 launch completes Aireon’s network of aircraft-tracking sensors that are included as payloads onboard each Iridium Next satellite.