Heaviest satellite launched by Iridium Communications, Inc. into space at 860 kg

Operated by Iridium Communications, Inc. of USA, Iridium Next 167 is a government and commercial satellite launched for the purpose of communications.

A polar LEO satellite, it was launched into space using Falcon 9 as the launch vehicle from Vandenberg AFB on 11 January 2019. Iridium Next 167 was constructed by Thales Alenia Space/Orbital ATK (France/Italy/USA).

With a launch mass of 860kg and a dry mass of 678kg, Iridium Next 167 is designed to operate in space for a lifetime of 15 years. It orbits around the Earth with the COSPAR ID 2019-002K and NORAD ID 43931.

Taking 97 minutes to orbit the Earth, the satellite's perigee, which is the point of the orbit closest to the Earth's center of mass, is 612km while its apogee, which is the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth's center of mass, is 625km. The eccentricity of the orbit is 9.30E-04.

With generated usable power of 50 watts, Iridium Next 167 orbits at an inclination of 87 degrees to the equatorial plane of the Earth.

Compare Iridium Next 167 with Dove 4v-26 from USA.

Compare Iridium Next 167 with Starlink-2327 from USA.

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