Iridium in talks to launch more backup satellites this year

Iridium expects to take advantage of a rideshare opportunity this year to launch up to five of the six spare satellites it has been storing in Arizona. The satellite operator expects to make a formal announcement about the potential $35 million launch deal in “the next couple weeks,” company spokesperson Jordan Hassin said. Matt Desch, Iridium’s CEO, first disclosed plans to deploy ground spares in the company’s April 19 earnings call for the first quarter of 2022. “I want to be clear that we do not have an immediate need to launch these satellites,” Desch said. “Our constellation is very healthy and is performing well, but our ground spares have little utility just sitting in storage.” More

(Source: SpaceNews - Apr 24)