4th batch of Iridium satellites will be launched by SpaceX on an expendable booster

Stock photo of AsiaSat-8
Photo Credit // SpaceX

SpaceX will be launching the 4th batch of Iridium satellites into a polar orbit around Earth on Friday, December 22nd at 8:26pm EST. Iridium-4 will be launched from SLC-4E at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The booster used on this mission will be expendable, or not recovered, so it will not feature the iconic grid fins or landing legs found on most Falcon 9 rockets nowadays. It will be a flight-proven booster with the soot from the last mission still on it, as confirmed on Twitter by the CEO of Iridium, Matt Desch. This will also be the first launch of a flight-proven rocket from Vandenberg. The booster that is being used previously launched the Iridium-2 mission, making Iridium the first company in history to reuse the same rocket. These next 10 satellites, once launched, will mark the halfway point of bringing the whole fleet into orbit around the Earth. A total of 40 satellites have been launched so far and after this launch there will be 40 left to launch, 10 satellites per launch. More info on the launch will be released as the launch date approaches. The static fire for the launch was successfully completed on December 17th.