Hello everyone: Last night I had alerted a number of people in the Houston area to attempt to observe IR24. Nobody observed a flare and almost nobody observed the spacecraft with binoculars. If you take a look at the elements, IR24 is in a slightly higher orbit than normal and the drag term has been jumping around a bit. IR24 has been placed in 'thruster attitude control mode'. For us it means that there will be no reliable flare predictions for at least several weeks. The signal that things are going back to normal will be a lowering of the orbit down to the nominal mean motion profile. Thruster attitude control has actually boosted the orbit. The last plane of the constellation will soon be populated if the Proton launch goes off successfully today. Other status info: IR 11, which had been reversed by 180 degrees in orientation, is also in thruster attitude control mode and is expected to be fully operational by mid June. In fact, by mid June all planes are expected to be populated and cell phone testing by ground users is to start. The Iridium system should be online for commercial use by September. Paul Paul D. Maley United Space Alliance DO5/Cargo Operations NASA Johnson Space Center Houston TX 77058 USA tel. 281-244-0208 email: paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov latitude 29.6049 north, longitude 95.1086 west