When Iridium was announced in the early 1990s, it seems to point to a bright future for LEO commsat constellations. In large part due to Iridium, competing networks were also designed. Space analysts forecast a huge new market for LEO launch services, inspiring several companies to attempt to develop new boosters. For a time, things looked terrific in the space business.

Motorola and Iridium Corp. spent somewhere around $5 billion to build the satellite constellation and support network. However, due in part to very high costs, they never signed up very many customers. The company went bankrupt and the satellites were also deorbited before someone bought the entire operation for a price believed to be from $25-50 million, such a deal. They then sold block times to various government agencies for some reasonable prices. Not having to worry about a $5 billion debt, they could afford to price their services at much lower levels and win more customers. Of course, this put even more financial pressure on their competitors like GlobalStar.

Iridium just launched 5 new replacement satellites to maintain the constellation. This is important to the long-term viability of the network.

Now, why does the article appear to have a picture of Mir along side the Iridium cell phone?