Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Thales Alenia Space have agreed to work jointly on the nexgenn satellite constellation Iridium NEXT program. Ball Aerospace's possible roles and responsibilities would be assembly, integration and test (AI&T) for the Iridium satellites.

Under the current agreement, Ball Aerospace will apply its payload accommodation experience and product-line approach, leveraging decades of experience in producing commercial fixed-price remote sensing satellites. The company will process as many as four spacecraft at one time through its Boulder-based satellite production facility. Additionally, Ball Aerospace will advise Thales Alenia Space on possible hosted secondary payload opportunities to serve the needs of a variety of defense and civil missions.