{"id":86798,"date":"2010-06-18T21:32:22","date_gmt":"2010-06-18T13:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-wins-492-million-iridium-next-launch-contract\/"},"modified":"2010-06-18T21:32:22","modified_gmt":"2010-06-18T13:32:22","slug":"spacex-wins-492-million-iridium-next-launch-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-wins-492-million-iridium-next-launch-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Wins $492 Million Iridium Next Launch Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Iridium Communications<\/strong> has awarded a $492 million  launch contract to <strong>SpaceX<\/strong> to carry multiple Iridium  Next constellation satellites on Falcon 9 rockets, the companies  announced June 16.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The deal represents the largest commercial launch contract to date.  Over a two-year period starting in early 2015, SpaceX will insert the  satellites into a low-earth orbit (LEO) from the Vandenberg Air Force  Base (VAFB) in California. Launch services are included in the total  estimated cost of $2.9 billion for Iridium Next.<br \/>\n\u201cTwo weeks ago, we announced our fixed-price contract with Thales Alenia  Space. We also announced our Coface-backed financing plan, and today I  am pleased to announce our partnership with SpaceX for extremely  cost-effective launch services,\u201d Iridium CEO Matt Desch said in a  statement.<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cThis is the third major building block on the road to Iridium  NEXT,\u201d said Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium. \u201cTwo weeks ago, we announced our  fixed-price contract with Thales Alenia Space. We also announced our  Coface-backed financing plan, and today I am pleased to announce our  partnership with SpaceX for extremely cost-effective launch services.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Desch said SpaceX offered dedicated launch slots within its  manifest, which currently has 24 Falcon 9 flights scheduled, including  those for commercial and government customers, during the next five  years. SpaceX launched its debut Falcon-9 rocket on June 4 and achieved  Earth orbit, marking a successful inaugural performance for the highly  anticipated medium-lift launch vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iridium Communications has awarded a $492 million launch contract to SpaceX to carry multiple Iridium Next constellation satellites on Falcon 9 rockets, the companies announced June 16. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The deal represents the largest commercial launch contract to date. Over a two-year period starting in early 2015, SpaceX will insert the satellites into a low-earth orbit [&hellip;]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-86798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86798"}],"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=86798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}