{"id":63346,"date":"2019-01-03T21:34:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T13:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/matt-desch-stresses-importance-of-upcoming-iridium-8-launch\/"},"modified":"2019-01-03T21:34:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T13:34:39","slug":"matt-desch-stresses-importance-of-upcoming-iridium-8-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/matt-desch-stresses-importance-of-upcoming-iridium-8-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Desch Stresses Importance of Upcoming Iridium-8 Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Iridium<\/strong> Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Matt Desch discussed the company\u2019s Iridium-8 launch preparations during a press call this morning. He highlighted the launch\u2019s significance, which will complete the Iridum Next constellation. In most cases, \u201cthe ending doesn\u2019t seem as big as the beginning, but it is for Iridium,\u201d said Desch. \u201cThe final launch in a week is, by far, the most important milestone of all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>SpaceX<\/strong> launch is set to take place on Jan. 8 at 7:48 a.m. local time from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Although the launch was initially set for Jan. 7, there was a delay due to \u201cminor technical issues from processing the first and second stages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company will be completing a three billion dollar refresh of the Iridium Next satellite constellation, aiming to enable more efficient Internet of Things (IOT) capabilities, <strong>Aireon<\/strong>, and <strong>Iridium Certus<\/strong> services. Finishing the constellation \u201cmeans finally realizing the dream the founders of this system had 30 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cOur network will finally achieve the financial independence and maturity that makes a satellite operator mature, and creates a lot of opportunities we\u2019ve never had before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Desch also emphasized the company\u2019s focus on space debris removal. \u201cAs of today, 52 of the original block one satellites are undergoing a de-orbitting process. It\u2019s simply the responsible thing to do as a satellite operator.\u201d He added that 46 out of the 52 satellites have been fully de-boosted and de-orbitted.<\/p>\n<p>But, what\u2019s next for Iridium Next? According to the CEO its Iridium\u2019s L-band service, Iridium Certus. Beta trials are already complete, with some service providers already offering services to maritime customers ahead of the official launch. Although there is an \u201capplication in every vertical,\u201d Desch said the company is focusing on safety of life services and broadband. \u201cWe think it\u2019s about a $700 million dollar market currently served by one satellite operator.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iridium Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Matt Desch discussed the company\u2019s Iridium-8 launch preparations during a press call this morning. He highlighted the launch\u2019s significance, which will complete the Iridum Next constellation. In most cases, \u201cthe ending doesn\u2019t seem as big as the beginning, but it is for Iridium,\u201d said Desch. \u201cThe final launch in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63347,"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":[],"class_list":["post-63346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63346"}],"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=63346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}