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Contact:
Christine Nelson |
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Contact:
Christine Nelson |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
97-151
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., July 9, 1997 -- A McDonnell Douglas (NYSE: MD) Delta II launch vehicle today placed another five IRIDIUM® communications satellites into orbit. Today's successful launch brings the total of orbiting IRIDIUM satellites to 17.
The two-stage Delta II lifted off from Space Launch Complex 2 at 6:04 a.m. PDT within a five-second window on a flight path that followed an azimuth of 196 degrees from south to north.
"This is our second successful launch for Iridium LLC," said Darryl Van Dorn, director for NASA and Commercial Delta programs. "Delivery into orbit of five more satellites brings the IRIDIUM system closer to becoming operational."
On May 5 a Delta II launched the first five of a 66 satellite network. After separation from the rocket, the satellites were subsequently placed in a high inclination, circular operational orbit 420 nautical miles above the Earth.
The IRIDIUM system will provide a satellite-based wireless personal communications network permitting any type of telephone transmission to reach its destination virtually anywhere on Earth, at any time.
Unlike most of today's communications systems which transmit a signal from Earth to a satellite and back to Earth, the IRIDIUM system will relay a signal from satellite to satellite to a receiver on another part of the globe. The constellation of IRIDIUM satellites will ring the Earth with 11 satellites in each one of six orbital planes.
The 124-foot-high Delta II 7920 rocket is built by McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach, Calif., and assembled in Pueblo, Colo.
The Rocketdyne division of Boeing North American, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif., builds the first-stage main engine, and Alliant Techsystems, Magna, Utah, builds graphite epoxy motors for boost assist. Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., builds the second-stage engine, and Allied Signal, Teterboro, N.J., builds the guidance and flight control system.