It was launched into low Earth orbit from Site 81/23 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 01:36 UTC on 14 September 1997, by a Proton-K rocket with a Block DM2 upper stage.

[2] Iridium 33 was part of a commercial communications network consisting of a constellation of 66 LEO spacecraft.

The system employs ground stations with a master control complex in Landsdowne, Virginia, a backup in Italy, and a third engineering center in Chandler, Arizona.

The system employed L-Band using FDMA/TDMA to provide voice at 4.8 kbps and data at 2400 bps with a 16 dB margin.

[4] On 10 February 2009, at 16:56 UTC, at about 800 km altitude, Kosmos 2251 (1993-036A) (a derelict Strela satellite) and Iridium 33 collided, resulting in the destruction of both spacecraft.