Iridium NEXT maintains its schedule [Update-3]

In June 2012, I wrote a post about the future constellation of communications satellites Iridium NEXT. While intended for operational use in 2017, the calendar had been shifted by a few months. Indeed, the launch of the first ten satellites by the private company SpaceX, originally planned on 12 th 2016, was postponed for a few months by the explosion on September 1 of a Falcon rocket 9 rocket explosion during the fuel filling on its launch pad before a shot of engine test.

No changes to the technical aspects of the constellation already mentioned in my previous article : Fully autonomous operation independent of terrestrial infrastructure obtained by a mesh between satellites. That routing " Intelligent" in orbit is enabled through the use of computers With the Most advanced software technologies. High-speed data transfers, support of 3G/4G mobile services .

Thehe satellites are designed by Thales Alenia Space, Assembly is provided by Orbital ATK, in Gilbert, in Arizona, Validation of the system is provided by Integrated teams from Thales Alenia Space and Boeing with Platforms validation divided between Toulouse and Gilbert.

Thehe Launch of two First satellites from Russia in 2015 had made it possible to validate compatibility with The current constellation. Nine Launches Will to have a constellation Fully Deployed and operational Planned fin 2018. The Launches, in batches of ten satellites, are operated by SpaceX, from The Launch Pad of Vandenberg, in California. The first launches were made in 2017 the 14 January, the 25 June, the 9 October and 22 December, all with success. The last launch is expected to be made before mid-2018.

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Unlike the current constellation, deployed on 3 planes comprising two polar orbits with 11 satellites, Iridium Next will be deployed on 6 planes each comprising a single orbit with 11 satellites, allowing even more global coverage, particularly in the equatorial regions.

Iridium NEXT Land Cover

Commercial services associated with this new constellation are referred as "Certus". Once all services are fully deployed, Iridium Certus will be able to achieve flow rates of up to 1,4 Mbps. Theservices Certus 20 and 100 (22 and 88 Kbps) suitable for applications such as email, Weather chart, Photo transfer, The Internet (*), or respectively 10 and 40 times faster than the current service, should affect us with mobile devices.

[Update 10 January] Unfortunately, for current mobile devices (Iridium 9575, Iridium GO!®), Iridium sales informs :

"Iridium's current products, including the Iridium GO!, will work with the Iridium NEXT constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites. However, they will not benefit from the new Iridium Certus service. Iridium Certus is a multi-service communication platform that will offer improved download and upload speeds. Iridium has not publicly announced its plans for a new GO generation!, but our partners are currently manufacturing aeronautical and marine products specifically designed to work with Iridium Certus. For more information on future Iridium Certus products, please visit our Iridium Certus webpage at : https://www.iridium.com/search/?fwp_search=certus&fwp_search_type=product " Signed Iridium Customer Care.

Bitter disappointment ! However, this in no way calls into question the interest of the Iridium GO! and its features for boating. If the flow rate is not improved, the new layout of the NEXT constellation and the power of its new satellites should undoubtedly eliminate the latency periods we experience in inter-tropical areas.

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(*) Source : IoT Business News
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