Washington DC – April 28, 1998 – The Long March 2C launch vehicle is the selected launcher of choice to maintain the Iridium space constellation, with replacement launches set to start this summer, a senior Iridium official told SpaceCast Tuesday in Washington.
While planning for the need
to replace other Iridium satellites now on orbit, the final installations
of the 66 spacecraft constellation await launch of the last seven
spacecraft aboard rockets from China and California, Iridium Vice Chair and
CEO Dr. Edward F. Staiano said Tuesday.
Iridium has used three launch vehicle service providers to loft their
satellites: Boeing, which has provided a variant of the Delta II booster,
Khrunichev, which offers the Proton DM, and the Great Wall Industry Corp.,
which flies the Long March family.
While Staiano pronounced his company
“delighted” with all three providers, he called the Long March “the key to
our maintenance plan”. That plan, to replace malfunctioning or marginally
producing Iridium satellites with new vehicles, plus spares in each of the
six different Iridium orbital planes, will begin this summer with the
launch of a Long March 2C carrying a pair of the satellites.
“This is a
Long March that was planned as a spare,” Staiano said. “Our plan is to fly
six replacements (satellites) per year.”
Staiano also said that extensive planning went into the launch vehicle
service purchases, both in terms of the locations needed for launch, plus
the sequencing of the launches. Each of the six planes consists of 12
satellites, 11 operational birds plus a single satellite as backup spare.
Staiano told SpaceCast that the Delta carries five, the Long March 2C
carries two, and the Proton lifts seven. So it was the flexibility of these
vehicles that allow Iridium to mix different launches from different
geographic inclinations to assemble each 12 vehicle constellation – and to
maintain the arrangement.
One Iridium failed last week, and on an earlier
launch another suffered a stuck thruster which sent the spacecraft out of
control. The Long March maintenance launch in June will carry a replacement
satellite for a spare that has been pressed into service, plus a new spare.
And while the Chinese booster is the primary vehicle for replacements, due
to its two-vehicle payload capability, Staiano said that Motorola
-Iridium’s builder and a major investor in the project -may consider a
smaller version of the Boeing Delta. “We will be discussing this with
Motorola after the Delta launch next week,” Staiano said.
