Iridium Pushes Ahead Satellite Project

Iridium continues its push into the market for satellite data and telemetry services, as it announced the company that would build its second generation of satellites. Amid a great deal of pomp and circumstance including the ringing of the opening bell at Nasdaq, Iridium announced Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between French owned Thales (67%) and Italian based Finmeccanica (33%), would be designing and building the new satellites. Iridium’s old network of 66 satellites was designed for voice calls; the new satellites will also be able to handle data more efficiently, and include cameras as well. The company also plans to share the satellite platforms with some scientists for use in studying the Earth