Thales Alenia Space Delivers Simulators to SpaceX for Iridium NEXT Launch Testing

Thales (News - Alert) Alenia Space is said to have delivered two complete high-fidelity satellite simulators and numerous low-fidelity simulators to SpaceX for facilitating the Iridium (News - Alert) NEXT launch testing.

The delivered simulators are slated to be used in a range of launch tests by SpaceX, Iridium's launch partner.

Iridium NEXT is Iridium's second generation global satellite constellation that will be put in place to drive innovation, create opportunities, and change the way people and organizations communicate around the globe. Consisting of 66 low-Earth orbit satellites, six in-orbit spares and 9 ground spares as back support, the new constellation is designed to offer more bandwidth and higher data speeds and should cater to future consumer and industry demands.

The Iridium NEXT is scheduled to begin launching in 2015 and with the delivery of the simulators the project has moved from design phase to testing and launch-preparedness phase.

Scott Smith, chief operating officer at Iridium stated, "With the support of our partners, Thales Alenia Space and SpaceX (News - Alert), we continue to make steady progress towards the launch of Iridium NEXT and are working to ensure our production satellites are fully operational on day one in space. We are working hand-in-glove with our mission team to ensure the launches are flawless. After years of hard work and planning, it is exciting to see the Iridium NEXT program coming together."

For the launch testing process, ten satellite simulators were constructed to represent the satellite flight units and these simulators have the same volume, same mechanical interface and mass properties of actual satellites. The simulators will be utilized by launch partners Kosmotras, which will launch the first two satellites via its Dnepr rocket, and SpaceX, which will launch the remaining satellites via its Falcon9 rocket.

Jean-Loic Galle, chief executive officer at Thales Alenia Space, added, "We continue to break space industry records with Iridium. Typically, we produce one or two simulators per satellite program, but due to the size of the Iridium NEXT constellation and rigorous testing built into this launch plan, it requires 10 simulators to ensure full testing with the launch platform." 

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