In Largest-Ever Launch Deal, SpaceX Will Carry Iridium's Satellites Aboard Falcon 9

By Clay Dillow Posted 06.16.2010 at 11:59 am 4 Comments

Falcon 9 Launch 2

In a sign that President Obama’s vision for a private space industry might be gaining some legs, Iridium Communications has penned a nearly $500 million deal with SpaceX to send its next-gen satellites skyward aboard the private space carrier’s Falcon 9 rocket starting in 2015.

The two-year deal, valued at $492 million, is the largest single commercial launch agreement ever made and if successful could provide a framework for the future of commercial space flight. The flights will launch Iridium’s cargo into low-earth orbit from Vandenberg AFB in California.

For its part, the Falcon 9 proved itself up to the task just this month, launching into orbit successfully for the first time on June 4. Given the contract doesn’t kick in for another five years, SpaceX should have plenty of time to tweak, test, and refine its launch vehicle before it goes into service. SpaceX is also contracting with NASA to ferry supplies to the space station after Shuttle flights are phased out at the end of this year.

Iridium also announced that it’s conducting talks with at least one more private space provider, so there could be more lucrative news in the offing for America’s private space industry in coming months.

The company has plenty of work to spread around. The company's Iridium NEXT initiative calls for a constellation of 72 orbiting next-gen communications satellites (66 operational plus 6 orbiting spares) to be put into orbit between 2015 and 2017, creating a network that will cover 95 percent of the earth. Each satellite will have the capacity to host 110 pounds or extra payload, offering government agencies and research institutions the ability to launch sensor arrays and scientific instruments into orbit aboard their commercial satellites.

[WSJ]

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4 Comments

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bigburb

06/16/10 at 12:30 pm

Newsflash...the private space industry was gaining legs before Obama ever became president.

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CalvusAquila

06/16/10 at 3:54 pm

Great news! But our journalists need to remember to keep their reports to the facts. As bigburb pointed out; our current president has little to do with the current happenings in commercial space programs.
I can hear it now "Barak Obama: Creator of the Commercial Space Industry". It goes along with "Al Gore: Creator of the Internet". Anyone else remember that?

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Revelmonk

06/16/10 at 4:47 pm

I'm sorry I just have to comment on these two commentators this article and no article I've read has said that president obama has created the private space industry.

The presidents vision was that america already has a great private enterprise space industry and they are evolving by leaps every year, so what he felt was that the private industry could take over for monumental epicness that nasa has been for human space flight.(of course with nasa oversight)

His presidency is the only one that has been able to put faith into the private industry taking over for what nasa has done for decades.

No one is saying that he is creating private space industry it's always been there but he is the first to put a whole administration behind it.

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killerT

05/25/12 at 1:34 pm

Quite right Revelmonk.
I thought the first comment was rather distasteful.

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