With Russian launch grounded, Iridium flips order of satellite deployments

Stymied by Russian government dithering that has indefinitely grounded a test launch on a modified Soviet-era missile, Iridium officials say that SpaceX agreed to move forward to July the first of seven Falcon 9 launches from California with the company’s next-generation mobile communications satellites. Iridium originally planned to start launching the Iridium Next satellite fleet before the end of 2015 with the liftoff of two pathfinder spacecraft on a Dnepr rocket from Russia. But a faulty component in each satellite’s Ka-band communications payload had to be replaced last year, delaying the first Iridium Next launch aboard Dnepr until April. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 1)