Iridium Upgrades Sat Phones for Cosmonauts

In many areas of the US, drivers can be cited for talking on their phones while driving—wonder if cosmonauts can be cited for talking on sat phones while returning to Earth. Regardless, Iridium Satellite has upgraded the satellite phones used by Russian cosmonauts when returning to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian authorities are replacing the older 9505 Iridium handsets, which have been in service since 2003, with new-generation 9505A units. Iridium originally supplied the 9505 handsets to the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia in August 2003. The phones had become standard equipment on each Soyuz space vehicle delivering cosmonauts to the ISS and returning them back to Earth. The Iridium phones provide a critical safety link for communicating with the returning cosmonauts as the Soyuz descent vehicles often land in very remote regions of Russia not covered by terrestrial telecommunication networks. The Iridium phone, and the GPS receiver, enables the search and rescue teams to quickly locate and recover the spacecraft and crew.