OET Gives Iridium OK for NASA Satellite Experiments

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved Iridium's role in a series of NASA-conducted experiments involving the Technical Educational Satellite-6 (TechEdSat-6) low earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellite. OET's special temporary authority granted Monday said an Iridium satellite phone will be used on the satellite to transmit to satellites in Iridium's LEO constellation, with those transmissions being part of an experiment in using the Iridium constellation in tracking and data relay for nanosatellites. The company said it will transmit in the 1618.725-1626.5 MHz band and that TechEdSat-6 will be in orbit at most 30 days.