The operators of the world’s first satellite phone service would have loved to get a busy signal.
There was one big problem. Commercial consumers found a $7 billion, 66-satellite Iridium system too clumsy and too expensive to use. That led to a major customer disconnect and a
high-tech hang-up.
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More than 66
satellites like the one pictured
above powered the Iridium phone
network.
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It was in the heyday of need-it-now,
on-the-run personal communications. On November 1, 1998 the Motorola
Corporation’s Iridium proudly opened Iridium, its phone and paging services via
satellite.
In many ways the Iridium project
heralded a number of breakthroughs.
For instance, the entire constellation
of mass-produced satellites had been deployed in space within 12 months.
Boosters from three nations -- the
Chinese Long March, the Russian Proton, and the U.S. Delta -- hurled into orbit the Iridium
system.
A phone call from a handset can
be sent through thesatellite constellation, handed from one Iridium
spacecraft to the next. The call is then routed to the handset of the intended
recipient, anywhere around the world.
The bad news was obvious.
Initial phones cost upwards of $3,000 and were about the size of a brick. Phone
charges could skyrocket to as high as $7 a minute. Also, an Iridium user had to
stand near windows or trot outside to place a call.
To make matters worse, Iridium
failed to secure what it once hoped would blossom to a customer base of 5
million users worldwide by 2002. In going-out-of-business statements, Motorola
reportedly claimed just 63,000 customers.
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The orbits of Iridium's constellation of
satellites.
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Iridium filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in August, 1999. But in November, the near-death satellite-telephone network was given new
life.
Iridium Satellite LLC took over the constellation of
orbiting satellites for $25 million. In early December, the
U.S. Defense Department awarded the new operator a two-year $72 million contract to utilize Iridium for far-flung soldiers, sailors and other military
personnel.
The new owner of Iridium is already talking about launching a dozen new spacecraft as replacements, to upkeep the constellation. They better hurry.
In November, the first Iridium -- one of several
non-operating spacecraft -- made an
un-controlled nose-dive into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Talk about a trailblazer.
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-- Leonard David, Senior Space
Writer |
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