Rocketlab acquires Iridium

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky?

Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.

Edit: Another note on space junk is the effect on our atmosphere with all the "burning-up" of various materials. Apparently they don't just completely vaporize, but instead leave behind micro particles that float around for a long time. People are studying this and hopefully raising appropriate alarms (Making the case for wood satellites).

I think they saw how SpaceX was using Starlink as launch lever to provide SpaceX a baseline of regular launches at bare-minimum cost. As RocketLab starts to scale up, being able guarantee a minimum number of launches is a significant hedge against the dips in the global satellite market.

Also, RocketLab builds their own sats and can add the Iridium constellation replacements to their order book. It's a win-win. A smart move by Peter Beck and his team.

"Rocket Lab acquires Iridium" sounds like a notification out of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or Anno 2205.

Rocket lab used to be a New Zealand source of pride, having started there. From the press release, now it’s American. What happened?

RocketLab gains spectrum + profitable satellite company

I like RocketLab. Looking forward to Neutron etc. But this is a bad investment, no other way to put it.

“Rocket Lab” not “RocketLab”. Although I think the latter is better.

I dunno. I would be surprised if a 30 year old telecommunications network is going to be technically competitive with a SpaceX's LEO network that is still launching satellites as we speak.

How much market is there for people that just want low speed connectivity from the middle of nowhere?

Good to see the competition making moves, SpaceX's huge lead isn't ideal.

Crazy. I didn't know you could acquire things worth 20x more than you.

Who? is buying who?

I guess good for them and for the folks who just got paid.