g icon image

The Iridium satellite constellation provides voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over the entire Earth surface. Iridium Communications owns and operates the constellation, additionally selling equipment and access to its services. It was originally conceived by Bary Bertiger, Raymond J. Leopold and Ken Peterson in late 1987 and then developed by Motorola on a fixed-price contract from July 29, 1993 to November 1, 1998, when the system became operational and commercially available. The constellation consists of 66 active satellites in orbit, required for global coverage, and additional spare satellites to serve in case of failure. Satellites are in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 485 mi and inclination of 86.4°. Orbital velocity of the satellites is approximately 17000 mph. Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via inter-satellite links. Each satellite can have 4 inter-satellite links: one each to neighbors fore...

http://www.wikividi.com
____________________________________
Shortcuts to chapters:
00:02:50 History
00:05:27 Second generation
00:07:17 Original Iridium constellation
____________________________________


Copyright WikiVidi.
Licensed under Creative Commons.
Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium...