Iridium Satellite LLC has selected a pair of companies, Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space, to participate in the final phase of its procurement process for the firm's next-generation satellite constellation, "Iridium NEXT." The final phase will last approximately nine months and is anticipated to result in the award of a full-scale development agreement for Iridium NEXT with one prime contractor by the middle of 2009.

Article Tools

• 

According to Matt Desch, CEO and Chairman of Iridium, "The selection of Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space is a major milestone for us. This program reflects our commitment to the expansion of our amazing and very unique network, and to making our services even more powerful and cost-effective for our customers as we replace our technical marvel of a network with an even more powerful one." Mobile satellite services (MSS) provider Iridium, with more than 285,000 subscribers, hopes to continue its strong growth by offering an array of new services with the Iridium NEXT system.

• Iridium Satellite (www.iridium.com)
• Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (www.lockheedmartin.com/ssc/)
• Thales Alenia Space (www.thalesaleniaspace.com)