New Iridium Ground Station in Norway to Open

OSLO, Norway, Mar. 1, 2007 /Satnews Daily/ ― Iridium Satellite LLC plans to open a new telemetry, tracking and command/control (TTAC) earth station in Norway this year to enhance the service quality of its satellite constellation's global mobile satellite communications.

To begin operations in the third quarter, the Iridium TTAC facility will be located in Svalbard, Norway under an agreement with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT). KSAT, the owner and operator of the KSA Svalbard Satellite station (SvalSat), the world's largest ground station dedicated to supporting polar orbiting satellites, will provide operations and maintenance support for the site. Initially, it will include two Iridium dedicated tracking command transmission and data reception antennas. Iridium expects to add up to three additional antennas at a later date.

"The new TTAC site in Norway is the latest step in our ongoing program of ensuring peak performance for our fully meshed network of cross-linked satellites at all times," said Matt Desch, chairman and CEO, Iridium Satellite.

"We are pleased to host Iridium's TTAC facilities at our Svalbard site," said Rolf Skatteboe, KSAT president. "This is a very good demonstration of how other satellite operators can take advantage of our Svalbard ground station services."

The new TTAC earth station will augment visibility and access to Iridium's satellite constellation. It also will add to Iridium's command and control capabilities, and provide remote access to the satellites from Iridium's existing gateways.

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