Matt Desch: Rideshare Opportunity Could Prompt Iridium to Launch Spare ‘NEXT’ Satellites

Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch has said the company could opt to send the six ground spare satellites for the Iridium NEXT constellation should an opportunity for a rideshare mission arise, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

“If the right deal comes along, similar to the one that we had with Iridium-6 and the rideshare that we had with NASA,” he told reporters during a call on Thursday.

“That really worked out extremely well … I would expect it’s going to be another deal like that.”

Desch noted the company predicts development work on those ground spares to conclude by February.

Iridium now expects the final and eighth batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites to launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 8.