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  • Hacker News
  • Isn't this a bit weird? Has Rocketlab launched payloads for Iridium ? Is Iridium adding to their constellation or are they just trying to make a few dollars out of their existing satellites by suppling messaging for things like Garmin SPOT etc. Iridium satellites aren't in LEO orbits - can Rocketlab satellites even deploy payloads to those orbits ? Maybe the newer bigger rocket they are working on can but i don't think the current Electron rocket can.

    I guess it only has to make sense to Wallstreet types ....

    by ozmaverick72
  • I dunno. I would be surprised if a 30 year old telecommunications network is going to be technically competitive with a SpaceX's LEO network that is still launching satellites as we speak.

    How much market is there for people that just want low speed connectivity from the middle of nowhere?

    by ryandvm
  • As an ex-Motorolan (1998-2008), I sometimes look at what remains of the big mighty company and there is not much.

    Here in Europe it is even less, at least in the US you see the umpires (or somebody else, not sure as I fo not know baseball) with their half-headsets with the Motorola logo.

    It is a shame, I liked this company very much.

    by BrandoElFollito
  • RocketLab gains spectrum + profitable satellite company
    by everfrustrated
  • I highly recommend the book Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story by John Bloom. The story of how Iridium came to be and how difficult it was to keep Motorola from literally destroying the whole constellation (which they had originally built!) is quite fascinating.

    Tidbit: Author is also the real-life person behind the comedic persona Joe Bob Briggs. If you ever lived in Texas you know that name. And yes the guy can write seriously good nonfiction.

    by dreamcompiler
  • Rocket lab used to be a New Zealand source of pride, having started there. From the press release, now it’s American. What happened?
    by phildenhoff
  • "Rocket Lab acquires Iridium" sounds like a notification out of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or Anno 2205.
    by Centigonal
  • I think they saw how SpaceX was using Starlink as launch lever to provide SpaceX a baseline of regular launches at bare-minimum cost. As RocketLab starts to scale up, being able guarantee a minimum number of launches is a significant hedge against the dips in the global satellite market.

    Also, RocketLab builds their own sats and can add the Iridium constellation replacements to their order book. It's a win-win. A smart move by Peter Beck and his team.

    by JanSolo

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