At the Satellite 2016 show in Washington D.C. excitement at the low-Earth orbit satellite operator, Iridium, is palpable as they approach their first Falcon 9 launch of ten NEXT generation satellites scheduled for July this year. The ambitious launch and deployment target has all 72 (66 operating plus 6 on orbit spares) NEXT generation spacecraft in-orbit by August 2017 via seven Falcon 9 missions of ten spacecraft each. The remaining two spacecraft are contracted to fly on a Dnepr rocket which was originally due to fly first, but the schedule has slipped due to Russian bureaucratic and political delays and remains in doubt.
According to Brian Pemberton, VP and GM Aviation and Maritime, Iridium, the new spacecraft will be launched into a slightly lower orbit than the current in-orbit units, and then will be raised into the desired slots, in a planned seamless transition. As each plane requires 11 spacecraft, some spacecraft will need to swap planes in a plane-changing manoeuvre that takes several weeks. The whole constellation should be operational by the end of 2017.
The new constellation will increase capacity tenfold and will enable the introduction of a niche broadband service called Certus with low latency connection speeds of up to 1.4Mbps. A key component of the new system is hosted payloads, lead by the Aireon ADS-B commercial air traffic tracking system (which may result in there being no more lost airliners). A further payload is being hosted for Exact Earth, to track maritime shipping using AIS signals.
Whilst the L-band Iridium constellation may in future face competition from a plethora of in development LEO constellations, Iridium can still claim to be the only global interlinked communications constellation.
Tim Fuller met with Brian Pemberton, VP and GM Aviation and Maritime, Iridium, at the Satellite 2016 show.
