Eccentric orbits : the Iridium story
Bloom, John, 1953-2016
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In the early 1990s, Motorola made a huge gamble on a revolutionary satellite telephone system called Iridium. Iridium's constellation of 66 satellites in six evenly spaced orbital planes meant that at least one satellite was always overhead, and you could call Tibet from Fiji without a delay and without your call ever touching a wire. But only months after launching service, it was $11 billion in debt, burning through $100 million a month and bringing in almost no revenue. It looked like Iridium would go down as just a 'science experiment'. That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a former CEO of Pan Am, heard about Motorola's plans to 'de-orbit' the system and decided he would buy Iridium and somehow turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business. This book masterfully traces the birth of Iridium and Colussy's tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed.
Main title:
Eccentric orbits : the Iridium story / John Bloom.
Author:
Bloom, John, 1953-, author
Imprint:
New York : Grove Press, 2016.
Collation:
544 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9781611855357 (pbk)
Dewey class:
384.51384.51 BLO
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
1307873
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