Here is a series of pictures taken by Daniel Deak in July 2001 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. showing details of an exact replica of an Iridium satellite entirely built from spare parts.

    Most of the structure seems to be made of honeycomb material covered with a layer of reflecting metal. So almost all flat surfaces of the satellite can produce flares. But, for now, only operational satellites can have flares predicted that come from the Main Mission Antennas (MMA) or the solar panels.

    You can click on any picture to get a full size one of about 1800 x 1200 pixels in .jpg format. By placing the cursor over the selected picture, you will see the image and file size.
 
 

	Triangular body of the satellite. We can easily notice the three MMAs with their white "beta cloth" covered upper surface. The battery compartment is in the upper section of the body but the cover is not visible since it is located on the surface facing the ceiling. This cover is highly reflective and tilted 5 to 10 degrees toward the ground. It's not a flat plate all the way, it has three angled surfaces unlike the other two sides. The white truss at the bottom is not part of the satellite.
One of two solar panels. Because of their size, 8 meters total length, both could not be seen well on the same picture. See close-up in picture below.
	Bottom view of the satellite showing well the MMA arrangement placed at 120 degrees apart. The four bronze dishes are the Gateway Antennas used to send the signals to the ground processing stations.
Nice view of the satellite base showing all the antenna types including the three Crosslink Antennas, the flat plates about 30 cm in size, used to relay the signals between satellites of the constellation.      Notice the white-sided square blocks on the MMAs. These are the receiving modules that collect signals from Iridium portable phones.
	Simulated flare on a MMA using the camera flash.
Close-up of the orientation mechanism for the solar arrays, again with a direct reflection of the camera flash. Notice the different cell colors.
	Details of the Gateway Antennas. Notice the surface texture on the MMA. One can imagine what a flare would be if it was a perfect mirror !

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