Iridium Satellite LLC on Aug. 27 officially opened its new telemetry, tracking and command/control (TTAC) station in Fairbanks, Alaska in a move to provide additional layers of redundancy, flexibility and reliability for its global mobile satellite communication network.

The 12-acre TTAC site includes three Iridium earth terminals. Iridium plans to add two more terminals this year and three more terminals in 2007. It will add to Iridium’s command and control capabilities, and provide remote access to the satellites from Iridium’s existing gateways. In addition, the Alaska ground station will provide seamless, redundant access to the constellation.