Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 09 to 14 & Iridium 16

Launch Provider & Rocket

• Provider: Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (Government)
• Rocket: Proton-K/17S40 — Proton / UR-500 family

Mission

Iridium provides global mobile telecommunications services using a constellation of 66 low earth orbit satellites in a 86.4° inclined orbit. Although 77 satellites were originally envisioned for the system and spawned the name based on the 77th element in the periodic table, the system has been scaled back. Motorola's Satellite Communications Group designed and manufactured the Iridium satellites with Lockheed Martin providing the LM-700A spacecraft buses.

• Type: Communications
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Launch Site

• Pad: 81/23 (81L)
• Location: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
• View on map

Program

• Iridium Constellation — The Iridium satellite constellation provides L band voice and data information coverage to satellite phones, satellite messenger communication devices and integrated transceivers. (Wikipedia)