Boeing To Take Line Honors With Final Iridium Launch

A Boeing Delta II expendable launch vehicle will lift five Iridium telecommunications satellites into orbit this Friday, May 15, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch will be the final batch for Iridium’s 66-node communication constellation. The five-second launch window opens at 2:28 p.m. PDT.

The launch will be the ninth by Boeing in a series of missions for Motorola, builder of the Iridium system satellites. Since May 1997, Boeing Delta II rockets have carried 40 Iridium system satellites into orbit.

This will be the fifteenth Iridium system launch in just 12 months, and will bring the total number of operational satellites on-orbit to 67.

Delta rockets are credited with 15 successful launches during the past 12 months, placing 53 satellites into orbit. Nine of the 15 launches were for the Iridium system.

There will be a live satellite feed of the launch. Satellite GE 3K, Transponder 16. GE 3K is at 87 degrees West. This is a 36 Mhz transponder. Uplink Frequency 14320 (Vertical), Downlink Frequency: 12020 (Horizontal). Broadcast time is 2 to 3 p.m. PDT.

Iridium LLC is developing and commercializing a global digital wireless communications network that will combine the worldwide reach of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites with land-based wireless systems, to enable subscribers to communicate using handheld telephones and pagers virtually anywhere in the world. Service introduction is planned for September 1998.