By Parker Leavitt | The Republic | azcentral.com
A $3 billion global-communications satellite project launched this week in Gilbert is expected to strengthen worldwide connections and help air-traffic controllers keep closer tabs on jetliners as they slip out of radar over Earth’s vast oceans, officials say.
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, which operates a high-tech factory surrounded by two tracts of farmland in northwestern Gilbert, will build 81 satellites over three years for international communications giant Iridium Communications and French technology provider Thales Alenia Space.
Iridium operates the world’s largest privately owned fleet, or “constellation,” of satellites, with 66 soaring nearly 500 miles above the planet, orbiting at speeds of about 17,000 mph, Chief Operating Officer Scott Smith said.
