Communications
IRIDIUM 128
Global Mobile Satellite Network (Iridium NEXT) · Iridium Communications
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One of the 66 operational Iridium NEXT satellites, part of a system that also hosts secondary scientific payloads including GPS radio occultation sensors feeding NOAA's commercial weather program. Building extra science payloads into a telecommunications constellation is an efficient use of launch mass that few satellite operators have replicated at this scale.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 485–487 mi (780–783 km)
- Inclination
- 86.4°
- One orbit
- 100.3 minutes14.4 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 42811
- Int’l designator
- 2017-039J
- Launched
- 2017
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
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