LowEarth
Mission record

Proton-K/17S40 | Iridium 27 to 33

Proton-K/17S40· 81/23 (81L)· Success
Trajectory & orbital insertion · playback
Orbits are real (live SGP4) — press play to sweep the deployed group forward along their planes. Ascent path is a representation; true ascent telemetry isn’t public.
Provider
Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center
Provider type
Government
Orbit
LEO
Mission type
Communications
Launch site
Kazakhstan
Date
Sun, 14 Sep 1997 01:36:54 GMT
Orbital launch #
#4171 ever

Mission

Iridium provides global mobile telecommunications services using a constellation of 66 low earth orbit satellites in a 86.4° inclined orbit. Although 77 satellites were originally envisioned for the system and spawned the name based on the 77th element in the periodic table, the system has been scaled back. Motorola's Satellite Communications Group designed and manufactured the Iridium satellites with Lockheed Martin providing the LM-700A spacecraft buses.

Deployed payloads · 60
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