Iridium is scheduled to start launching its next gen LEO satellite network in 2014. I personally think this date will slip to the right, however…
According to SpaceFlightNow, Iridium has “extra room, power and communications capacity on the company's NEXT constellation.” They are looking for applications. The USAF is interested in filling the extra space on on their satellites. Sounds like some foreign nations may be interested as well.
Iridium has mentioned a few ideas for filling that empty space. Cool tools for:
- Space Situational Awareness
- Space Weather monitoring
- Earth imaging
- Use a GPS link between NEXT and comsats for a host of measurements between LEO and GEO
- 110 pounds of mass
- 50 watts of continuous power
- 1 megabyte/sec communication rate
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