SpaceX Explosion Investigation Pushing Back Iridium's Next Deployment

Iridium's Next constellation likely won't be fully deployed until 2018 and the company isn't sure when the inaugural Next launch by SpaceX will take place, said Iridium CEO Matthew Desch during the company's Q3 earnings call Thursday. That first launch was slated for September, but SpaceX's ongoing investigation of an explosion during a Sept. 1 preflight ignition test remains underway, Desch said. He said SpaceX indicated it expects to resume launches this year, and one of them "will presumably include ours." Desch said Iridium was comfortable with the progress SpaceX is making in its launch investigation. SpaceX has said that, pending the results of its investigation, it expects to resume launches as early as November. It didn't comment Thursday on which missions would go up when. Despite the launch delays and the loss of two satellites earlier this year (see 1607280006), Iridium's existing constellation "is operating well" and has one in-orbit spare, Desch said, saying there haven't been any signs of battery failure. The loss of two satellites caused some small outages, though the company's customer availability statistics are still high, Desch said. The first two Next constellation launches are targeted to plug those two holes, he said. Iridium also had expected to be able to launch its L-band Certus broadband service commercially in mid-2017 (see 1606070018), but "it could be a little later" given the launch delays, Desch said. Meanwhile, Iridium could start deorbiting its legacy satellite constellation as soon as 2017, he said, with that process expected to be complete by 2019. Iridium revenue for the quarter was $112.8 million, up 6 percent year over year, due mostly to government services, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Fitzpatrick said. He said the company still is seeing declines in traditional telephony usage.