SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:37 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the third set of 10 new-generation satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network. The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean a few minutes after liftoff. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Ten new next-generation communications satellites for Iridium Communications Inc. were carried into orbit Monday by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from California.
The rocket lifted off from coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base before dawn Monday in a spectacular display of colors. Its first-stage booster successfully returned from space and set down on a landing platform floating in the Pacific Ocean as the second stage went on to deploy the satellites in orbit.
The booster will be carried to the Port of Los Angeles and offloaded at SpaceX’s parking spot later this week on San Pedro’s Outer Harbor for reuse.
It was the third and last successful launch this year in McLean, Virginia-based Iridium’s campaign to replace its entire globe-circling fleet with a total of 66 next-generation communications satellites.
The satellites also carry payloads for global real-time aircraft tracking and a ship-tracking service called Certus service, which it hopes to offer to customers early next year.
“Iridium Certus is going to fundamentally change the status quo in satellite connectivity for aviation, maritime, land-mobile, Internet of Things and government users,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch said, in a written statement. “Achieving this major milestone continues our momentum for our mission to introduce world-changing broadband services and applications designed to help our partners provide critical connectivity solutions, both standalone and in support of other broadband technologies.”
The rocket maker has scheduled its next launch on Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida, as the company works to keep up with heavy demand from customers and to reduce its already low launch cost of about $60 million.
