ORBCOMM Launches Commercial Service for First
Six OG2 Satellites
ORBCOMM Inc. has launched commercial
service for its first six next generation OG2
satellites. ORBCOMM’s advanced OG2 satellites
are providing both M2M messaging and Automatic
Identification System (AIS) service for its
global customers. ORBCOMM successfully launched
the first six OG2 satellites on July 14, 2014,
aboard a dedicated SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.
After comprehensive in-orbit testing, the six
satellites have been properly spaced within their
orbital planes and are now processing over 20% of the
network’s M2M traffic. With the addition of the OG2
satellites, ORBCOMM is now collecting over 13 million
AIS messages from more than 130,000 unique vessels per
day, surpassing all other AIS networks in service
quality.
“Through great teamwork among Sierra Nevada
Corporation, Boeing and ORBCOMM’s engineering and
network operations teams, we have been able to quickly
validate the performance of the six OG2
satellites,” said John Stolte, ORBCOMM’s Executive Vice
President of Technology & Operations. “Customers are
experiencing significantly improved service,
particularly during parts of the day when we previously
had limited satellite coverage. The versatility of the
OG2 satellites will also enable us to further improve
communication capabilities to ensure we are providing
our customers with the highest levels of reliability,
coverage, service and performance.”
ORBCOMM has completed the satellite thrust maneuvers
to equally position five of the OG2 satellites within
their plane (now referred to as Plane K) to provide
optimum coverage and fill the gap in the existing OG1
constellation. The sixth satellite will be placed in a
lower elliptical orbit, which will enable the satellite
to drift to a new orbit plane that will be 90 degrees
from Plane K and will be the first member of Plane L.
“While we’ve come a long way with the inaugural
launch of OG2 service, we are now focused on the second
phase of the OG2 constellation and launching the last 11
satellites as part of our second mission, which will
enable us to provide new OG2 features and services
around the clock and continue to bring AIS ship
visibility down from hours to minutes,” said Marc
Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of ORBCOMM. “We look
forward to providing our customers with the only fully
funded, fully operational, second generation satellite
network purpose-built for the global M2M industry.”
The OG2 satellites are fully backwards compatible
with ORBCOMM’s existing OG1 network. ORBCOMM’s
customers do not need to change or upgrade their fielded
devices and are now seamlessly using the six OG2
satellites to send and receive messages for their
applications with their existing platforms.
