A 12 year campaign \u2013 including a two year, eight launch process \u2013 came to a successful conclusion for Iridium Communications on Friday, 11 January when the final batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites were successfully deployed into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the launch campaign might have seemed like the end. But as with all missions, it was just the beginning as Iridium and their NEXT constellation is now primed to offer a full range of new capabilities.<\/p>\n
Speaking to NASASpaceflight\u2019s Chris Gebhardt before the final launch, Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch enthusiastically discussed the upcoming steps for the newly launched NEXT constellation.<\/p>\n
In terms of the new services, \u201cThe first service we\u2019re turning on is already in some commercial use, but we\u2019re going to announce the official commercial launch of it this month. And that is the Iridium Certus broadband service.<\/p>\n
\u201cIridium Certus is our brand name, but it\u2019s really more of a technology platform that we developed into Iridium NEXT. It\u2019s a platform that scales all the way from low-speed IoT (Internet of Things) all the way up into higher speed broadband capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n