Iridium satellite system
E246425
low Earth orbit satellite constellation
mobile satellite service system
satellite communication system
The Iridium satellite system is a global network of low Earth orbit communication satellites that provides worldwide voice and data coverage, including for remote sensing platforms like Argo floats.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Iridium satellite system canonical | 2 |
| Iridium | 1 |
| Iridium Certus | 1 |
| Iridium Communications Inc. | 1 |
| Iridium NEXT | 1 |
| Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2208951 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Iridium satellite system Context triple: [Argo floats, dataTransmittedVia, Iridium satellite system]
-
A.
Argos satellite system
The Argos satellite system is a global satellite-based data collection and location system used to relay environmental and oceanographic measurements from remote platforms such as Argo floats to data centers.
-
B.
Galileo satellite navigation system
The Galileo satellite navigation system is the European Union’s global navigation satellite system designed to provide highly accurate positioning and timing services worldwide as an independent alternative to GPS and other GNSS constellations.
-
C.
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-B
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-B was a NASA communications satellite intended to relay data between spacecraft in low Earth orbit and ground stations as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).
-
D.
GLONASS
GLONASS is Russia’s global satellite navigation system, providing worldwide positioning and timing services as an alternative to GPS.
-
E.
ANIK C2 communications satellite
ANIK C2 is a Canadian commercial communications satellite used to provide telecommunications and broadcasting services.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Iridium satellite system Target entity description: The Iridium satellite system is a global network of low Earth orbit communication satellites that provides worldwide voice and data coverage, including for remote sensing platforms like Argo floats.
-
A.
Argos satellite system
The Argos satellite system is a global satellite-based data collection and location system used to relay environmental and oceanographic measurements from remote platforms such as Argo floats to data centers.
-
B.
Galileo satellite navigation system
The Galileo satellite navigation system is the European Union’s global navigation satellite system designed to provide highly accurate positioning and timing services worldwide as an independent alternative to GPS and other GNSS constellations.
-
C.
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-B
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-B was a NASA communications satellite intended to relay data between spacecraft in low Earth orbit and ground stations as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).
-
D.
GLONASS
GLONASS is Russia’s global satellite navigation system, providing worldwide positioning and timing services as an alternative to GPS.
-
E.
ANIK C2 communications satellite
ANIK C2 is a Canadian commercial communications satellite used to provide telecommunications and broadcasting services.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (61)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
low Earth orbit satellite constellation
ⓘ
mobile satellite service system ⓘ satellite communication system ⓘ |
| altitude | approximately 780 kilometers ⓘ |
| commercialServiceStartDate | 1998 ⓘ |
| constellationDesign | Walker star ⓘ |
| countryOfRegistration |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| coverageType |
oceanic coverage
ⓘ
pole-to-pole ⓘ remote area coverage ⓘ |
| formerOperator | Iridium LLC ⓘ |
| globalCoverage | yes ⓘ |
| hasAdvantage |
provides coverage in polar regions
ⓘ
supports low-power remote instruments ⓘ works independently of ground-based cellular networks ⓘ |
| hasInterSatelliteLinks | yes ⓘ |
| headquartersLocationOfOperator |
McLean
ⓘ
surface form:
McLean, Virginia, United States
|
| inclination | 86.4 degrees ⓘ |
| initialDeploymentCompletionDate | 1998 ⓘ |
| initialDeploymentStartDate | 1997 ⓘ |
| interSatelliteLinkType | crosslinks in space ⓘ |
| launchProviderForUpgrade | SpaceX ⓘ |
| launchVehicleUsedForUpgrade |
Falcon 9 rocket
ⓘ
surface form:
Falcon 9
|
| notableApplication |
global asset tracking
ⓘ
remote environmental monitoring ⓘ satellite phone service ⓘ telemetry for Argo profiling floats ⓘ |
| numberOfInOrbitSpares | 9 ⓘ |
| numberOfOrbitalPlanes | 6 ⓘ |
| operator |
Iridium satellite system
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Iridium Communications Inc.
|
| orbitalRegime | low Earth orbit ⓘ |
| orbitType |
near-polar orbit
ⓘ
sun-synchronous-like orbit ⓘ |
| originalNumberOfSatellites | 66 operational plus spares ⓘ |
| primaryUserGroup |
aviation industry
ⓘ
emergency services ⓘ maritime industry ⓘ military users ⓘ scientific research community ⓘ |
| satellitesPerPlane | 11 ⓘ |
| serviceType |
aviation communication
ⓘ
data communication ⓘ land mobile communication ⓘ machine-to-machine communication ⓘ maritime communication ⓘ short-burst data ⓘ voice communication ⓘ |
| supportsPlatformType |
Argo floats
ⓘ
IoT devices ⓘ autonomous vehicles ⓘ buoys ⓘ remote sensing platforms ⓘ |
| supportsService |
Iridium satellite system
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Iridium Certus
Iridium OpenPort ⓘ Iridium satellite system self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD)
|
| totalOperationalSatellites | 66 ⓘ |
| upgradedConstellationName |
Iridium satellite system
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Iridium NEXT
|
| upgradeLaunchPeriodEnd | 2019 ⓘ |
| upgradeLaunchPeriodStart | 2017 ⓘ |
| usesFrequencyBand |
Ka-band (crosslinks)
ⓘ
L-band ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Iridium satellite system Description of subject: The Iridium satellite system is a global network of low Earth orbit communication satellites that provides worldwide voice and data coverage, including for remote sensing platforms like Argo floats.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Iridium
this entity surface form:
Iridium Communications Inc.
Iridium satellite system
→
upgradedConstellationName
→
Iridium satellite system
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Iridium NEXT
this entity surface form:
Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD)
this entity surface form:
Iridium Certus