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I was pretty excited about this when they were putting them up but of course I was just a kid so I didn't lose any money investing in them. :-) I am excited to

by andymoe 12y ago

I was pretty excited about this when they were putting them up but of course I was just a kid so I didn't lose any money investing in them. :-) I am excited to see that the Iridium NEXT [1] constellation is on the SpaceX launch manifests [2] not too far down the list. There are seven iridium flights in line. Hopefully this time they can find a bigger market and drive down costs. [1] https://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumNEXT.aspx https://www.iridium.com/About/IridiumNEXT.aspx [2] http://www.spacex.com/missions http://www.spacex.com/missions

diek 12y ago
What's also exciting about Iridium NEXT is they will have a hosted payload that will do global tracking of aircraft. Right now organizations like the FAA and NAV CANADA are very dependent on ground stations to track planes. Satellite tracking would be a big step forward: http://www.aireon.com/AboutAireon/AnIridiumInnovation http://www.aireon.com/AboutAireon/AnIridiumInnovation
- ak217 12y ago
  How does that compare to Immarsat?
  - apercu 12y ago
    Inmarsat's constellation is not global (pole to pole) coverage. Iridium's value proposition here (with a subsidiary named Aireon) is global ADS-B coverage.
MrBuddyCasino 12y ago
Yeah, nearly missed that. Heres the quote: "In June 2010, Iridium signed the largest commercial rocket launch deal ever, a US$492 million contract with SpaceX to launch tens of Iridium NEXT satellites on multiple Falcon 9 launchers in 2015–2017 from Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3.[15]"