(MSu1049321) wrote in message ...
The remaining sats were bought out and run by another company, immediately
turned around a lucrative military comms contract and then...? What's the
status of the system now, and what are the prospects for it's future?

My previous comments on the bankruptcies of the big-LEO
systems say that big-LEO has never been tried (in the
proper way). The post-bankruptcy Iridium Satellite LLC
suggests that big-LEO can be successful, if the economics
are right.

The problem for Iridium's future is: What happens when
the system wears out?

IMO, it is quite feasible to build a big-LEO system with
good economics. All that is needed is a good space
transport and a sane, mass-production approach to building
a very large number of low-cost satellites.

Best regards,
Len (Cormier)
PanAero, Inc.
(change x to len)
( http://www.tour2space.com )