CAPECANAVERAL, Fla. -- Five spare spacecraft were launched into Earth orbit forIridium Satellite LLC Monday to bolster the company's existing constellation.

TheMotorola-built satellites, launched from California atop a Boeing Delta 2rocket, join 66 operational satellites and seven other spares already in orbit.

"There'snot an urgent need now for any of these spares," said Iridium spokesmanAndrew Balfour. "This is just part of the long term plans we have toensure we can maintain our constellation."

Togetherthese spacecraft orbit the planet at a relatively low altitude compared toother communications satellites providing paging and mobile phone service tousers all over the world. Competitors include Globalstar and ICO.

TheU.S. government is Iridium's principal customer. In December 2000 the Pentagonawarded Iridium Satellite LLC a two-year, $72 million contract to provideservice to the military after the original company, Iridium LLC, filed for bankruptcy.Options could extend the contract to 2007 and raise its value to $252 million.

Thecontract award came one month after a bankruptcy court allowed the sale ofIridium LLC's assets -- which included the $5 billion worth of satellitesalready shot into space at that time -- to Iridium Satellite LLC for a price of$25 million.

Monday'smission featured spares already built and planned for launch by the originalcompany. Two more spares are to be launched from Russia in June, althoughcompany officials say there are no immediate plans to declare any of these operational.

"Inthe past two years, the constellation has not required the use of any in-orbitspare," said Dannie Stamp, chief operating officer of Iridium SatelliteLLC. "Through a robust architecture and a highly-skilled team of operatorsand engineers, the reliability of the Iridium satellite constellation is farexceeding original design predictions."

Infact, an independent assessment by The Aerospace Corp., last year concludedthat the Iridium constellation should remain healthy and able to serve itsgrowing customer base through 2010.

ForBoeing, the Iridium launch marked the first space shot of 2002, the 101st ofthe Delta 2 configuration and the 290th Delta launch going back to 1960. Andthe five spacecraft that rode atop the 13-story booster brings to a total of 60the number of Iridium satellites launched into orbit by Boeing.

"We'veteamed with Iridium since the early 1990s and the Delta 2 team is proud to addto the constellation again," said Jay Witzling, Boeing's vice presidentand deputy program manager of Delta and Titan programs.

Liftofffrom Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base came at 12:44 p.m. EST(1744 GMT), three days later than planned.

AFriday attempt was scrubbed due to gusting surface winds at the launch pad,while two weekend attempts never really got started before they were halted dueto technical problems with an Air Force range tracking aircraft on Saturday anda balky fuel sensor on Sunday.

Thenext Delta 2 launch is expected from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Marchwhen the Air Force is to launch a replacement Global Positioning Systemsatellite into orbit.