Iridium satellites that provided global phone service may soon be deorbited as the company declared bankruptcy. The satellites interfere with radio astronomy observations of hydroxyl emissions used to study stars. While astronomers will be relieved if the satellites are removed from orbit, it could take the satellite operator Motorola up to two years to deorbit all 90 satellites safely.
Iridium satellites that provided global phone service may soon be deorbited as the company declared bankruptcy. The satellites interfere with radio astronomy observations of hydroxyl emissions used to study stars. While astronomers will be relieved if the satellites are removed from orbit, it could take the satellite operator Motorola up to two years to deorbit all 90 satellites safely.
Iridium satellites that provided global phone service may soon be deorbited as the company declared bankruptcy. The satellites interfere with radio astronomy observations of hydroxyl emissions used to study stars. While astronomers will be relieved if the satellites are removed from orbit, it could take the satellite operator Motorola up to two years to deorbit all 90 satellites safely.
Iridium satellites that provided global phone service may soon be deorbited as the company declared bankruptcy. The satellites interfere with radio astronomy observations of hydroxyl emissions used to study stars. While astronomers will be relieved if the satellites are removed from orbit, it could take the satellite operator Motorola up to two years to deorbit all 90 satellites safely.
Look out for Iridium satellite flares — while you can!
All 90 spacecraft may be brought down
in the wake of Iridium LLC’s bankruptcy. Dave Sewell of Wilmington, Delaware, photographed this glint of reflected sunlight from Iridium satellite number 16 on March 7th. He used an Olympus OM-1 camera with a 50-millimeter lens at f/4 to take a 10-second exposure on Kodak 200 Elite II film. See www.heavens-above.com for your local Iridium flare predictions.
Iridium Satellites May Come Down Soon
Astronomers have had mixed feelings the spacecraft emerges. about the Iridium network of communi- Scott Wyman, a spokesman for Mo- cations satellites, which was established to torola, Inc. (the company that built the enable globetrotters to use portable tele- satellites and retains remote control of phones any place on Earth. Since their them), told Sky & Telescope that “the po- debut in 1997 the spacecraft have delight- ed many skywatchers by briefly reflecting tential to deorbit was built into the de- sign” of the satellites, and “Iridium and Advertisement sunlight as they creep across the sky, cre- the court” have given Motorola permis- ating flares that can outshine Venus for sion to do so — the motivation being several seconds (S&T: May 1998, page long-standing U.S. space policy to mini- 36). However, they have also interfered mize debris in low Earth orbit. But nei- with radio observations of emissions ther Wyman nor Iridium lawyer Casey from the important hydroxyl (OH) radi- Rice would say how or when this will be cal. Those emissions are used to study done. Aviation Now reports that it could cool stellar atmospheres and star-form- take Motorola up to two years to bring ing clouds. Prohibited in principle by in- all the spacecraft down into the Earth’s ternational law, this radio interference atmosphere, where they would burn up. has prompted lengthy and contentious As this issue of Sky & Telescope went to negotiations between astronomers and press Motorola was still operating the the satellites’ owners and operators satellite network, and its strong signals (S&T: December 1998, page 16). were still being picked up by interference Now it appears that astronomers may monitors at the Very Large Array radio- not have Iridium in their skies much telescope site in New Mexico. longer. Iridium LLC, the company that If the satellites really are brought down owned the satellites and ran the system, or at least turned off, Iridium’s failure declared bankruptcy last year, along with will provide a respite for the dedicated several affiliated entities. Collectively cadre of radio astronomers who spent they owe creditors more than $1 billion. years fighting Motorola and Iridium for With ordinary cellular-telephone net- radio-quiet skies. “When I started out, works rapidly expanding, far too few this was a hobby,” says Westerbork Ob- customers were willing to pay as much servatory director Willem Baan, refer- as $3,000 for a special Iridium tele- ring to the spectrum-usage negotiations phone and up to $7 per minute to use he carried out throughout the 1990s. it. On March 17th Iridium asked the Now, he says, it’s clear that radio obser- U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission vatories and astronomy funding agencies to “commence the de-orbiting of the need to support full-time efforts to save Iridium Satellites” if no serious bid for critical scientific frequencies.
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