[Satellite TODAY 01-28-11] Iridium Next prime contractor Thales Alenia Space awarded a systems integration and testing contract to Orbital Sciences, to integrate the low-Earth orbit constellation’s communications payloads and platforms, Orbital announced Jan. 27.
    All work will be completed at Orbital’s headquarters location in Dulles, Va., and its systems facility in Gilbert, Ariz. Orbital said it was issued the contract because of its geographical fit with Iridium’s satellite network operations center in Leesburg, Va., and its gateway in Tempe, Ariz.
    “We believe that the constellation’s hosted payload concept will grow significantly in the future as government space programs look for opportunities to carry out their mission in the most cost-effective and time critical manner,” Orbital Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy Michael Hamel said in a statement. “We are already seeing numerous examples of government space program customers taking advantage of the regularity of commercial satellite deployments and their demonstrated high rates of reliability. In a time of tight budgets, we see hosted payloads as great value to the customer community and intend to be at the forefront of the growth trend."