Iridium and SpaceX Sign Major Commercial Launch Contract

[beancounter]

Well I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

In the end, the only real test (which I'm sure you will agree with ) will be what does actually flys and when however several in the commercial sat' industry have been 'enthusiastic', those being ORBCOMM and the latest Iridium contract.  Can't say their reaction has been anything but that when you read their press releases.  Iridium in particular, was glowing in their appraisal of SpaceX but you could say that was to be expected given that they were now in bed together. 

It was interesting to note that ESA's comments on the SpaceX approach and how they probably wouldn't be able to do the same given their distributed manufacturing, testing, etc.  There seem to be implied (my interpretation) that they were a bit worried about getting cost reductions to match SpaceX but maybe I was reading too much into it.

My view - a couple of failures probably isn't going to do it either but again time will tell.

Cheers.

[beancounter]

Next step in this saga:

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/100805-iridium-secures-loan-commitments.html

[docmordrid]

There goes most of the 'no funding' argument, at least enough to get things started and part of the cluster up.

Next?

[neilh]

Next step in this saga:

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/100805-iridium-secures-loan-commitments.html

Press release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iridium-receives-commitments-for-18-billion-credit-facility-for-construction-of-iridium-next-2010-08-04?reflink=MW_news_stmp

[Robotbeat]

Next step in this saga:

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/100805-iridium-secures-loan-commitments.html

Press release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iridium-receives-commitments-for-18-billion-credit-facility-for-construction-of-iridium-next-2010-08-04?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Congratulations, Iridium! BTW, that url suggest $18 billion, which is a LOT more than reality. The actual amount is $1.8 billion. Still a lot. And a very low interest rate... less than 6%! Good for them, though it's still a big part of their annual revenue (about a third!). I'm sure they will have customers once the new constellation goes up. The new constellation is supposed to have flexible bandwidth.

[cuddihy]

Next step in this saga:

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/100805-iridium-secures-loan-commitments.html

Press release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iridium-receives-commitments-for-18-billion-credit-facility-for-construction-of-iridium-next-2010-08-04?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Congratulations, Iridium! BTW, that url suggest $18 billion, which is a LOT more than reality. The actual amount is $1.8 billion. Still a lot. And a very low interest rate... less than 6%! Good for them, though it's still a big part of their annual revenue (about a third!). I'm sure they will have customers once the new constellation goes up. The new constellation is supposed to have flexible bandwidth.

Yes, the biggest customer will continue to be Iridium's #1 customer -- the US Military.

[bolun]

Iridium Signs Backup Launch Deal with ISC Kosmotras

Wed, 22 June, 2011

LE BOURGET, France — Mobile satellite services operator Iridium Communications, whose contract to launch its 72 next-generation satellites with startup launch services provider SpaceX features an exceptionally low price, has signed a backup launch agreement with the builders of the Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket, Iridium announced June 20.

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/110622-iridium-launch-deal-isc-kosmotras.html

[Nomadd]

 I've been a SpaceX fan for a while now, and I use a lot of Iridiums in the business, but I wouldn't bet the farm on the new system being successful. I think they're waiting way too long to deploy it. By 2015 there will be half a dozen systems with small S-band handsets with high speed data capability. The only iridium market will be the few people who need the short propogation delay or are outside normal coverage areas.

[synchrotron]

Wrong

1.  It is already greater than 1/2

Spacex has a max GTO mission listed at 56M while an Atlas 401 is 138M.

Again, do you know what you are talking about?  No. 

Neither price is correct for the same customer.  The commercial price of an Atlas is not 138 and the gov't price of a Falcon 9 is not 56

And a GTO doesn't always mean the same thing. SpaceX typically cites a GTO that is several hundred meters/second lower than other providers.

[Prober]

I've been a SpaceX fan for a while now, and I use a lot of Iridiums in the business, but I wouldn't bet the farm on the new system being successful. I think they're waiting way too long to deploy it. By 2015 there will be half a dozen systems with small S-band handsets with high speed data capability. The only iridium market will be the few people who need the short propogation delay or are outside normal coverage areas.

Don't know what it is but Iridium has been such a "problem child".  The first round didn't go well, the 2nd isn't much better.

[antonioe]

I'm not sure if anybody noticed but Iridium's condition for giving Thales the contact for the spacecraft is that final integration and testing, as well as spacecraft-LV integration and launch ops be carried by a US company (lots of reasons why, but you can guess some, I'm sure).

Anybody care to guess which US company gets to do it?

http://www.thalesgroup.com/Pages/Event.aspx?id=15154

Can't wait for SpaceX's IPO so I can buy some stock...

[baldusi]

I'm not sure if anybody noticed but Iridium's condition for giving Thales the contact for the spacecraft is that final integration and testing, as well as spacecraft-LV integration and launch ops be carried by a US company (lots of reasons why, but you can guess some, I'm sure).

Anybody care to guess which US company gets to do it?

http://www.thalesgroup.com/Pages/Event.aspx?id=15154

Can't wait for SpaceX's IPO so I can buy some stock...

Congratulations Antonio!

[Robotbeat]

I'm not sure if anybody noticed but Iridium's condition for giving Thales the contact for the spacecraft is that final integration and testing, as well as spacecraft-LV integration and launch ops be carried by a US company (lots of reasons why, but you can guess some, I'm sure).

Anybody care to guess which US company gets to do it?

http://www.thalesgroup.com/Pages/Event.aspx?id=15154

Can't wait for SpaceX's IPO so I can buy some stock...

Congratulations!

BTW, if SpaceX is successful in lowering launch costs by an order of magnitude, it'll be Orbital stock I'm buying...

[antonioe]

BTW, if SpaceX is successful in lowering launch costs by an order of magnitude, it'll be Orbital stock I'm buying...

No need for an order of magnitude... just beat the foreign GEO launches (Ariane, Proton, Soyuz) by a reasonable amount...

[baldusi]

BTW, if SpaceX is successful in lowering launch costs by an order of magnitude, it'll be Orbital stock I'm buying...

No need for an order of magnitude... just beat the foreign GEO launches (Ariane, Proton, Soyuz) by a reasonable amount...

Does it help in the total bidding not to have to do any ITAR paperwork? Does it allows you to make lower bids? I.e., do you bid X for Ariane/ILS and Y (<X) if within USA (EELV, SpaceX)? I'm assuming that if you launch the whole thing there might be an extra discount. But current Taurus II can't launch your GSO payloads, can it?

[Prober]

BTW, if SpaceX is successful in lowering launch costs by an order of magnitude, it'll be Orbital stock I'm buying...

No need for an order of magnitude... just beat the foreign GEO launches (Ariane, Proton, Soyuz) by a reasonable amount...

I hate to bring this up (don't care for being spamed) but why isn't spaceX picking up the small launches from the island of 1's.  Pricewise how much is a Dner compared to a Falcon 1?
 

[bolun]

First Iridium Next Satellites To Launch on Dnepr Rocket

http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/120802-iridium-next-satellites-launch-dnepr-rocket.html

[Comga]

"..Iridium in March 2010 signed a $492 million contract with SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., to launch the operational Iridium Next satellites eight at a time aboard eight Falcon 9 rockets between early 2015 and 2017.

The restructured contract, which SpaceX and Iridium concluded Aug. 1, calls for seven Falcon 9 rockets, each carrying 10 Iridium Next satellites, to be launched beginning in mid-2017 and ending about 48 months later.

Iridium said it is saving $39 million by ordering seven rockets instead of eight. Iridium Chief Executive Matt Desch said during the conference call that the new calendar also gives SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 rocket is still in its infancy in terms of launch record, more time to digest its already large manifest of customers."

That takes the SpaceX manifest for 2015 from 15 launches to 12, with none booked for 2016.  For the year SpaceX has added 6 launches and lost 2. 

That says that Iridium is taking advantage of the higher lift capacity of the Falcon 9 v1.1 by launching 10 at a time instead of 8. It also increases the number of satellites from 8*8 to 7*10.   It puts a price on an F9 launch (bought in bulk) of $39M.

The last says that Iridium doesn't believe SpaceX can really do 33 launches in the 3 years 2012-15.  I bet that's a widely shared opinion.

[aga]

It puts a price on an F9 launch (bought in bulk) of $39M.

you can't know... i can easily imagine iridium saving 39mil. and the price being higher... not enough info, i would say...

[modemeagle]

It puts a price on an F9 launch (bought in bulk) of $39M.

you can't know... i can easily imagine iridium saving 39mil. and the price being higher... not enough info, i would say...

Possibly
492m/8 launches = 61.5m/launch
492m-39m= 453m/7 launches = 64.7m/launch

more per launch but less overall