{"id":14510,"date":"2017-06-25T20:59:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-25T12:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-iridium-satellites-prepped-for-falcon-9-flight\/"},"modified":"2017-06-25T20:59:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-25T12:59:57","slug":"photos-iridium-satellites-prepped-for-falcon-9-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-iridium-satellites-prepped-for-falcon-9-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Iridium satellites prepped for Falcon 9 flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second set of Iridium\u2019s next-generation satellites to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were prepared for liftoff inside a climate-controlled clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n

The 10 Iridium satellites were trucked from their factory near Phoenix two-at-a-time to Vandenberg in May and early June, then bolted to their SpaceX-built deployment mechanisms, fueled with hydrazine propellant, and enclosed inside the Falcon 9\u2019s clamshell-like fairing.<\/p>\n

Built by Thales Alenia Space in partnership with Orbital ATK, the satellites each with about 1,896 pounds (860 kilograms) with fuel. The launch set for Sunday follows another Falcon 9 mission in January that delivered the first 10 Iridium Next satellites to orbit.<\/p>\n

Iridium ordered 81 of the upgraded satellites to replace its aging fleet, and SpaceX is under contract to launch 75 of them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Two of the Iridium Next satellites inside the SpaceX clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Iridium Next satellites mounted to their two-tier dispenser mechanism. Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Iridium Next satellites mounted to their two-tier dispenser mechanism. Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The 10 Iridium Next communications satellites slated to launch Sunday from California were recently encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s payload fairing. Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Iridium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second set of Iridium\u2019s next-generation satellites to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were prepared for liftoff inside a climate-controlled clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base over the last few weeks. The 10 Iridium satellites were trucked from their factory near Phoenix two-at-a-time to Vandenberg in May and early June, then bolted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,479,530,2193,3266,2899,1574,316],"class_list":["post-14510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-falcon-9","tag-iridium","tag-iridium-next","tag-iridium-next-mission-2","tag-orbital-atk","tag-space-launch-complex-4-east","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}