Iridium Communications history

Ultimately, commercial service relaunched on March 30, 2001.

In 2004, Iridium made its first profit – $3.3M of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) on $121.5M in total revenues.

The contract, awarded through the DoD’s Defense Information Systems Agency, included options that would expand the contract to 2007, bringing its total value to $252 million.

GHL Acquisition Corp. acquired all of the equity in Iridium Holdings on September 29, 2009 and changed its name to Iridium Communications Inc., listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol IRDM.

In June 2010, Iridium announced a fixed-price contract with Thales Alenia Space for the design and construction of the next-generation satellites for the upgraded constellation.

Iridium Extreme won a 2012 Pittman Innovation Award from SAIL Magazine for its durability and functionality for sailors.

Iridium formally began the process to become a recognized GMDSS mobile satellite service provider in April 2013.

With 66 operational satellites and 11 of the 15 spares still in operation at the constellation’s peak, Iridium determined that the original satellite network could last until at least 2014.

On January 14, 2017, 10 years after the campaign was first announced, the first of eight Iridium NEXT launches took place with SpaceX from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The final Iridium NEXT launch took place on January 11, 2019, less than 2 years after the first launch.

Iridium plans to begin providing GMDSS service in early 2020.