Iridium 77 Iridium 77 Iridium 77 is a communications Satellite which is part of a satellite constellation known as Iridium, named after the 77th chemical element of the periodic table, "iridium". It was launched in 1998 and as of 2014, operational. It is owned and funded by Iridium, a communications company. Iridium 77 is a part of a space-based communications system called Iridium. Conceived, designed, and built by Motorola, the Iridium system provides wireless, mobile communications through a network of 66 satellites in polar, low-Earth orbits. Inaugurated in November 1998, under the auspices of Iridium LLC, this complex space system allowed callers
Group (periodic table) Group (periodic table) In chemistry, a group (also known as a family) is a column of elements in the periodic table of the chemical elements. There are 18 numbered groups in the periodic table, and the f-block columns (between groups 3 and 4) are not numbered. The elements in a group have similar physical or chemical characteristics of the outermost electron shells of their atoms (i.e., the same core charge), as most chemical properties are dominated by the orbital location of the outermost electron. There are three systems of group numbering. The modern numbering "group 1" to "group 18" is