WASHINGTON — A race is on to provide direct, global connectivity between satellites and individual cell phones. However, the major players disagreed on how long it could take to fully tap into the market during a panel discussion at the Satellite 2023 Conference on Monday.

Iridium Communications reported net income of $8.7 million on record total revenue of $721.0 million in 2022. Revenue was up by 17% over 2021, a year in which the company suffered a net loss of $9.3 billion.

FAIRFAX, Va. and MCLEAN, Va. (iridium Communications Inc. PR) — General Dynamics Mission Systems (NYSE: GD), and Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) announced today that they have been awarded a contract by the Space Development Agency in the amount of $324,516,613, including a base amount of $162,954,122 and  $161,562,491 in options, to establish the ground Operations and Integration (O&I) segment for Tranche 1 of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). Together, General Dynamics Mission Systems and Iridium will build ground entry points and operations centers for the NDSA as well as provide network operations and systems integration services for the SDA’s next tranche of proliferated low-earth orbit satellites. 

Astra Space scrubbed the ninth launch of its Rocket 3.3 booster from the Pacific Spaceport Complex –Alaska on Monday due to bad weather. The company is now targeting Tuesday, March 15 at 9:22 AM PDT (12:22 p.m. EDT) for the Astra-1 mission for Spaceflight Inc. Live stream will begin at T-45 minutes at astra.com/livestream.

MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 5, 2022 (Iridium Communications PR) — Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) today announced that Manjula Sriram has joined the company as Vice President & Chief Information Officer (CIO). Reporting to Chief Financial Officer Tom Fitzpatrick, Sriram is now responsible for leading Iridium’s Information Technology (IT) organization in implementing information systems to support both distributed and centralized business operations.

Sriram joins Iridium with more than twelve years of senior IT management experience.  Previously and for the past four years, Sriram was Vice President in the role of CIO for The Joint Chiropractic where she was responsible for the commercial and enterprise IT infrastructure for the company’s corporate and clinical operations, servicing approximately 700 standalone chiropractic offices. Prior to this, Sriram spent four years as the Director of Customer Implementation & Support for Early Warning Service, a financial systems company, to provide risk management solutions over a diverse network of 2,300 financial institutions, government entities and payment companies.

MCLEAN, Va., June 24, 2021 (Iridium PR) – Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) today announced it has been awarded a research and development contract worth up to $30 million by the United States Army (Army) to develop a payload to be hosted on small satellites that supports navigation systems, guidance and control for the global positioning system (GPS) and GPS-denied precision systems. The new experimental Iridium payload is intended to be hosted by another Low Earth Orbit (LEO) commercial satellite constellation, complementing the Iridium^® constellation’s capabilities.

Through this contract the Army intends to develop this payload to support the concept of a rapidly deployable smallsat constellation to provide more effective sensor-to-soldier data transmission when in the field. The development of this new payload is based on Iridium Burst^® technology, a unique service that can transmit data to millions of enabled devices at a time from space.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Russia recently marked the 25th anniversary of the entry of the Proton rocket into the international commercial marketplace. On April 8, 1996, a Proton-K booster with a DM3 upper stage launched the Astra 1F geosynchronous communications satellite built by U.S.-based Hughes for Luxembourg’s SES from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Relativity’s 3D printed Terran 1 launch vehicle offers dedicated missions for Iridium ground spare satellite deployments

LOS ANGELES, June 24, 2020 (Relativity Space PR) — Relativity Space today announced that Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) has signed a launch contract to deliver satellites to orbit.

The contract includes flexible timing for up to six dedicated launches to deploy Iridium’s ground spare satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).  The launches will take place on an as-needed basis, determined by Iridium and utilizing Relativity’s Terran 1, the world’s first 3D printed launch vehicle. Launches are planned for no earlier than 2023.

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 4, 2019 (Iridium PR) — Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM) today announced the closing of a $1.45 billion, seven-year term loan that sets the stage for the company to complete its financial transformation. The new credit agreement formally retires Iridium’s previous credit facility initiated in 2010 and guaranteed by BPI France (formerly COFACE), which enabled Iridium to finance the Iridium^® NEXT program.  An additional $100 million, five-year revolving loan facility is also included in the new agreement.

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 1, 2019 (Iridium PR) — Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) today announced that it has been awarded a 5-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency on behalf of the United States Air Force Space Command (AFSpC) with potential revenues up to $76 million.  

Known as the Gateway Evolution Contract (GEC), this contract enables ongoing innovation and critical enhancements for the U.S. Government’s dedicated Iridium gateway.  It will enable adoption of the latest technology upgrades, both hardware and software, necessary to address emerging warfighter requirements and to ensure continued operations with the latest state-of-the-art satcom-based capabilities.