Sunday, August 7, 2016

After hiatus, September Launch Dates Near, 10 Iridium Next Satellites stage at Vandenberg Air Force Base

It’s a big day for Iridium as the first 2 Iridium NEXT satellites
have successfully arrived at Vandenberg AFB!


Technicians load the first two Iridium Next satellites into their
shipping containers at Orbital ATK’s manufacturing facility in
Gilbert, Arizona. Credit: Iridium
File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
With Russian launch grounded, Iridium flips order
of satellite deployments – Spaceflight Now
As September Rocket Launch Dates Near, Satellites Begin Arriving at Vandenberg Air Force Base Local News - Noozhawk.com

This year’s lull in launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base is nearing an end.

Satellite manufacturers have announced the shipment of spacecraft to the Central Coast as the base gets back into the blastoff business.

The approximately six-month interruption was the result of work involving equipment used to monitor just-launched rockets and missiles, which the base commander said would lead to a compressed but busy year.
On Aug. 2, the first two Iridium NEXT satellites left Orbital ATK’s satellite manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Ariz., arriving safely at Vandenberg after the truck trip.

Officials say the arrival marks a significant milestone toward the first launch of the Iridium NEXT constellation, which is targeted for Sept. 19 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Ten Iridium NEXT satellites are set to fly aboard the rocket. As the remaining eight are completed, they will be shipped two at a time to Vandenberg, officials say.

Orbital ATK employees, along with prime contractor Thales Alenia Space, assemble, integrate and test the satellites at the Gilbert manufacturing facility.

A total of 81 satellites are scheduled to roll off the assembly line, with 66 serving as the operational satellites to replace the existing Iridium network, officials said. The remainder will serve as spares, some positioned in space and others waiting on the ground to be called into service.

All Iridium NEXT satellites — which are intended to provide voice and data communications across the globe — are scheduled for launch by late 2017, the company said.

Falcon-9 • Iridium NEXT 1-10
Planned launch of first two Iridium NEXT satellites was cancelled due the problems with availability of Ukrainian Dnepr rockets and lack of agree from Russian authorities for launching Dnepr from Russian Dombarovsky Cosmodrome. ISC Kosmotras Company responsible for launching Iridium NEXT-1 and Iridium NEXT-2 satellites mission was forced to break contract – Iridium decided to combine these two satellites with mission contracted to SpaceX. Falcon-9 1.2V will lift ten Iridium NEXT earlier (mission is moved from August) then it was planned to help Iridium with replacing previous generation of Iridium satellites. First generation remains in space since 2002 when last Iridium satellite was launched. New generation satellites will help Iridium to offer best global mobile telecommunications services.

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