Iridium Plans To Add Harris Hosted Payloads on Some Next Satellites

Iridium wants approval to allow Harris receive-only hosted payloads onto its Next satellite constellation, the company said in an FCC International Bureau filing posted Thursday. The Harris hosted payloads would be capable of receiving across the 156.0125-162.0375 MHz maritime VHF band from existing ship-based transmitter, with the signals then being downlinked to Iridium earth stations and transported to a Harris facility, Iridium said. The hosted payload would allow "deployment of a robust VHF Automatic Identification System and maritime domain awareness system" for government and commercial customers, and poses no risk of additional interference, Iridium said. The satellite company said testing of Next payloads is underway and it expects the first launches for its communications satellite constellation in December, though the first space vehicle including the Harris hosted payload would be the second Next launch, slated for April, and then on each subsequent Next launch.