Deorbiting a fully functional constellation of communications satellites is sheer folly. But that's what appears will happen this year to the Iridium system.

Iridium is a constellation of 66 car-sized satellites that support telephone service almost anywhere on Earth. It was also horribly expensive to build and launch, and the costs to consumers were too high to attract more than a few users. Other satellite communications companies put up a cheaper product, kept their costs low and eventually put the Iridium company out of business to the tune of a billion-dollar loss.

Now, Motorola, which operates the system, plans to let the satellites fall from orbit and burn up over the Pacific. The satellite operator is having discussions with NASA about how to "accomplish" this.

But consider: Normally, if a shipping company goes out of business, the ships are not sunk. If a trucking company goes out of business, the trucks are not burned. If a telephone company goes out of business, the poles, wires and jacks are not ripped from people's homes and tossed into the dump.

The same principle should apply to the Iridium constellation -- even more so, because these satellites are not just an ordinary ship, truck or telephone pole. These are incredibly expensive, complex machines that used up an incredible amount of energy and dollars to get into orbit. This system should be considered a national asset, considering the amount of money invested in them, even if it was private funds.

While it may be understandable that Motorola wants to cut its operating losses, somebody needs to step in and ask the question: "What can we do with this perfectly good system of communications satellites?"

If a shipping company goes out of business, the ships are not sunk. If atrucking company goes out of business, the trucks are not burned.
     

There are a number of government agencies in the United States alone that may have use for another system of communications satellites. Why doesn’t the U.S. government (or perhaps a consortium of businesses) step in to rescue the Iridium system, and put it to good use? Why not nationalize Iridium?

No doubt, the Red Cross would love to have immediate access to their people around the world. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would love to have instant communications throughout the U.S., independent of local telecommunications systems that might be inoperable in times of disaster. (Such a government communications system would, for once, be better than CNN's.)

The Iridium business has already failed, so no one would be hurt financially. The current operators would have to be kept on in the interim at least, so jobs are saved. And there won't be any pieces of a satellite falling on someone's head (if a deorbit burn went wrong and ended up over land instead of the Pacific).

Alternatively, we could give the constellation to the United Nations as an in-kind payment for the bill the U.S. owes that organization. (At a billion dollars, it should suffice.) Anything is better than letting these technological marvels turn into a few minutes of fireworks, or someone's pet science project on meteors.