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IRIDIUM PROVIDES UPDATE ON SATELLITE CONSTELLATION

BETHESDA, Md. – March 9, 2009 – Iridium is pleased to announce that on Wednesday,March 4, 2009, the company completed the replacement of the operational Iridium satellite lostin the collision three weeks ago with a non-operational Russian satellite. The unique architectureof Iridium’s fully-meshed network of 66 satellites enabled the continuity of service to Iridium’s customers while one of Iridium’s in-orbit spares was prepared and maneuvered into the constellation.“I am particularly proud of the Iridium and Boeing teams that manage our constellation. They moved quickly, efficiently and effectively to limit the minor service degradation caused bythe collision and to return our constellation to its full configuration,” said Matt Desch, chairman and chief executive officer, Iridium. “They are among the best in the business, and the speed with which they acted is testament to their ingenuity and commitment to Iridium’s customers.”Iridium, along with many other commercial space operators, has been engaged for sometime with the U.S. government in an effort to improve assessment and warning in venues such as the Commercial and Foreign Entities program, direct interaction with the U.S. Strategic Command and the National Space Security Office, and with industry organizations such as theSatellite Industry Association. While these have been useful efforts, Iridium believes this incident has demonstrated the need for even more aggressive action, and the company supports enhanced actions to increase the margin of safety for space operations. Some specific future activities that Iridium endorses include:Long-term investment to improve Space Situational Awareness (SSA) so that the space environment can be better understood and characterized. Better SSA is the key enabler for improved assessment and warning, and supports the objectives of National Space Policy Directive 49 (NSPD-49), our U.S. national space policy. Adding SSA sensors to....."