Iridium Launches 2 Satellites

Iridium LLC said two more satellites for its wireless communications network were launched successfully on Saturday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. It was the $5 billion ventures 14th successful launch in the past 11 months. One rocket launch remains for the satellite system to be complete. Iridium plans to provide a global network based on 66 low-Earth-orbit satellites, allowing users to communicate using hand-held phone and pagers anywhere on Earth. On Saturday, the satellites were sent into orbit on board a Chinese Long March 2C/SD rocket. Iridium LLC is an international consortium, including Motorola and Iridium World Communications.