Iridium Communications Inc. (IRDM)

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http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/techflash/2014/03/orbital-sciences-launches-3-billion-next.html?page=all

Orbital Sciences Corp. started production of 81 spacecraft today in Gilbert for the world’s only voice and data satellite network program, Iridium Next.

Thales Alenia Space of France, the prime contractor for the project, selected Orbital to assemble, integrate and test the satellites. The $3 billion next-generation satellite constellation is being built at Orbital’s local facility for Iridium Communications Inc., a McLean, Va.-based company that has an office in Tempe.

The cross-linked 66-satellite constellation spans the globe for personal data connectivity, allowing communications from a ground or airborne user from any location on Earth to virtually anywhere else on Earth.

The new satellites eventually will replace the current largest and unique group of 16-plus-year-old satellites in space, which provide global mobile communications via the world’s farthest-reaching satellite network.

The 66 new satellites, which will be launched into space starting in 2015, will provide more broadband services and enhanced voice quality and will meet future data demands, said Scott Smith, chief operating officer of Iridium Communications.

“In areas where there is no connectivity (like oceans and polar areas), the satellites provide data connectivity,” Smith said today at the Gilbert kickoff event, adding that the satellites support oil, gas, transportation and utility operations. “We reach 90 percent of the world that is not covered by cellular. Connectivity globally is key.”

The satellites will also help locate air traffic anywhere in the world, using new GPS receivers every commercial aircraft will be required to have by 2016, Smith said. This could have helped locate the recent Malaysian Airlines jet that was lost over the Indian Ocean.

Current air traffic control works with radar and transponders, a method that does not work when an aircraft is crossing remote ocean areas.

“There are long periods of time where no one knows where you are,” Smith said. “With new-generation aircraft, they will have this new GPS receiver. We’re putting these receivers on every satellite to know specifically where every aircraft is.”

Besides the 66 operational satellites, Orbital is building six on-orbit spares and nine ground-backup spacecraft at its new assembly line in Gilbert.

Orbital is expected to build three to four satellites a month for the next three years, completely replacing the older ones by 2017, Smith said.

The production marks the first activity for the Gilbert facility’s foreign trade zone, said Jason Yocum, Orbital’s senior program director for Iridium Next.

“The foreign trade zone has allowed Orbital to reduce program costs,” he said. “The zone is designed to make U.S. companies more competitive in the global market. This helps with our international partnership with Thales Alenia.”

Gilbert Mayor John Lewis, recalling the day in 1969 when he watched Neil Armstrong step on the moon, called this program “another giant leap for mankind.”

“I’ve been told this is the most significant commercial space project in the world,” he said. “Gilbert is the place helping the entire world to connect.”

Thirty to 40 employees at the Gilbert facility will build and test the spacecraft, Yocum said.

Orbital is also responsible for the ground support equipment, payload integration and launch integration services.

The newly designed satellites are expected to be in orbit for at least 15 years, Smith said.

Most of the old satellites will be taken out of orbit, he said, and some will be used for backup.

Orbital also is building a satellite for NASA to help understand Earth’s climate change