Hosted Payloads
- Brochures
- Booklet
328 KB - White Papers
- Ocean and Land Color Mission
1.3 MB - Global Climate Change Monitoring from the NEXT Iridium Constellation Earth Radiation Budget
1.6 MB - Altimetry Payload Specification for Iridium NEXT
2.8 MB - Scientific Specification for Global Navigation Satellite Systems Radio Occultation Instrument
1.1 MB - Meeting Presentations
- The Earth Radiation Budget
13.8 MB - GPS Radio Occultation
26.1 MB - Ground Segment and outreach
692 KB - Mission 1: "Imaging" (Ocean colour and land remote sensing) from the next Iridium constellation
5.2 MB - IRIDIUM-Next Altimetry mission: rationale, missions & societal benefits
3.5 MB - Cloud Motion Wind Vector (WindCAM): Operational global weather from the Iridium NEXT constellation
5.3 MB - Iridium NEXT Partnership in Earth Observation
500 KB - Iridium NEXT Partnership in Earth Observation #2
676 KB - Atmospheric Composition
9.3 MB
Iridium NEXT: Next-Generation Satellite Constellation
In February 2007, Iridium announced Iridium NEXT, a bold vision for a second-generation satellite constellation that will offer customers the same truly global coverage as today - and much more.
Anticipated to begin launching in 2014, Iridium NEXT will offer enhancements including:
- Improved data speeds
- Higher quality voice
- Flexible allocation of bandwidth
- The advantages of IP technology
- Powerful new services and devices
Iridium NEXT incorporates several key design principles:
- Maintains today's 66 cross-linked satellite LEO architecture covering 100% of the globe
- Backward compatibility with current handsets, devices and applications
- End-to-end IP technology for easy integration into existing enterprises and applications
As well as extending and enhancing Iridium mobile communications services, Iridium NEXT creates entirely new business and earth observation opportunities for commercial and government customers and partners. Iridium NEXT satellites are designed to host secondary payloads and offer a unique opportunity for economical space access for applications such as:
- Remote sensing
- Weather monitoring
- Earth observation
- Command and control
These secondary payloads will be able to use Iridium satellite cross-links to deliver sensor and other data from anywhere on the globe to any other point. Government and industry have expressed interest in sharing the Iridium NEXT global networked communications infrastructure