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Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story - How a Single Man Saved the World's Largest Satellite Constellation From Fiery Destruction
In the early 1990s, Motorola, the legendary American technology company developed a revolutionary satellite system called Iridium that promised to be its crowning achievement. Light years ahead of anything previously put into space, and built on technology developed for Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars,” Iridium’s constellation of 66 satellites in polar orbit meant that no matter where you were on Earth, 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.
Iridium the satellite system was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment, surely the future of communication. The only problem was that Iridium the company was a commercial disaster. Only months after launching service, it was $11 billion in debt, burning through $100 million a month and crippled by baroque rate plans and agreements that forced calls through Moscow, Beijing, Fucino, Italy, and elsewhere. Bankruptcy was inevitable—the largest to that point in American history. And when no real buyers seemed to materialize, it looked like Iridium would go down as just a “science experiment.”
That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a former head of Pan-Am now retired and working on his golf game in Palm Beach, 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.
In Eccentric Orbits, John Bloom masterfully traces the conception, development, and launching of Iridium and Colussy’s tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, from meetings with his motley investor group, to the Clinton White House, to the Pentagon, to the hunt for customers in special ops, shipping, aviation, mining, search and rescue—anyone who would need a durable phone at the end of the Earth. Impeccably researched and wonderfully told, Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of technological achievement, business failure, the military-industrial complex, and one of the greatest deals of all time.
Iridium the satellite system was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment, surely the future of communication. The only problem was that Iridium the company was a commercial disaster. Only months after launching service, it was $11 billion in debt, burning through $100 million a month and crippled by baroque rate plans and agreements that forced calls through Moscow, Beijing, Fucino, Italy, and elsewhere. Bankruptcy was inevitable—the largest to that point in American history. And when no real buyers seemed to materialize, it looked like Iridium would go down as just a “science experiment.”
That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a former head of Pan-Am now retired and working on his golf game in Palm Beach, 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.
In Eccentric Orbits, John Bloom masterfully traces the conception, development, and launching of Iridium and Colussy’s tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, from meetings with his motley investor group, to the Clinton White House, to the Pentagon, to the hunt for customers in special ops, shipping, aviation, mining, search and rescue—anyone who would need a durable phone at the end of the Earth. Impeccably researched and wonderfully told, Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of technological achievement, business failure, the military-industrial complex, and one of the greatest deals of all time.
560 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2016
212 people are currently reading
1636 people want to read
About the author
John Bloom
25 books63 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John Bloom is a journalist and entertainer born in Dallas, Texas, who grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now lives in New York City.
While serving as New York bureau chief for United Press International, he was an eyewitness to the events of 9/11 and was nominated by UPI for the Pulitzer Prize. His work for Texas Monthly magazine has been nominated three times for the National Magazine Award, and he has written for dozens of newspapers and magazines, as well as being a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and Creators Syndicate. He graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University, where he was a Grantland Rice Scholar for his work as a teenage reporter and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat.
In 1982 he created the pseudonym of "Joe Bob Briggs," using that pen name anonymously until he was outed in 1985. He then performed under that name on a number of television shows and at live venues, winning two Cable ACE Awards for a show called "Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater" on The Movie Channel and a similar show called "MonsterVision" on TNT.
John Bloom is a journalist and entertainer born in Dallas, Texas, who grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now lives in New York City.
While serving as New York bureau chief for United Press International, he was an eyewitness to the events of 9/11 and was nominated by UPI for the Pulitzer Prize. His work for Texas Monthly magazine has been nominated three times for the National Magazine Award, and he has written for dozens of newspapers and magazines, as well as being a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and Creators Syndicate. He graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University, where he was a Grantland Rice Scholar for his work as a teenage reporter and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat.
In 1982 he created the pseudonym of "Joe Bob Briggs," using that pen name anonymously until he was outed in 1985. He then performed under that name on a number of television shows and at live venues, winning two Cable ACE Awards for a show called "Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater" on The Movie Channel and a similar show called "MonsterVision" on TNT.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
January 30, 2020
The book basically talks about how some people set out to save the Iridium satellite system when Motorola decided to shut down the program and decommission the satellites. It is really well written and I learned a lot, the only problem is I kept getting really bored while reading it because I don't really care about people's personal lives and accomplishments usually unless its supposed to give me something so I kept wanting to stop reading. It's like that other book I read by the neuroscientist who just talks about his life and other scientists, I didn't really care I thought it would be more about his research. I know there are probably people who enjoy those kinds of books, I just don't find it interesting to see men running around trying to get people to buy a satellite.
May 21, 2016
A really great book. Educational, entertaining, and simply a book that once you are done reading it with fascination and interest, you will want to loan to your friends to get them interested in space, high technology, and how people build these marvelous systems. The story of the Iridium constellation of communications satellites is decades long, and it involves many, many people, as well as many governments and companies. I was dimly aware of Iridium before I started the book. I am now a fan.
This is the first book I have come across to tell the story of a complex, technologically-innovative space project from all the angles. The explanation of the scientific and engineering aspects of designing, building, launching, and operating a complex, cutting-edge system of 66 telecommunications satellites travelling at 17,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 485 miles above the Earth in 6 orbital planes is clear and compelling, even for a non-technical person such as myself.
Ground coverage of the Iridium satellites
Equally engrossing and illuminating is the story of the difficult and frustrating business history of the Iridium company, and its difficult birth and alienation from its parent company, Motorola. The technological aspects of the satellites, their constellation, frequencies, and everything else had been settled by 1995, but the business aspects, including the financing, relations to local business affliliates across the World (for the billing of customers), and the relationship between backers and large-scale uses like the US government, seemed to be never ending and endlessly frustrating. Iridium was technologically possible, but financially, programatically, politically, administratively, and from every other angle - it appeared impossible.
A decent part of this book is the story of the Iridium CEO, Dan Colussy, fighting numerous uphill and arcane battles against all those who thought the constellation would never work, never had a good business model, and that the system of satellites should simply be allowed to de-orbit, and everybody take their losses and go home (except Motorola, who always wanted somebody else to pay for their losses - or, in legalese "indemnification"). Absolutely everybody wanted the possibility of profits, if and when they should accrue, but precisely nobody wanted the risk.
Significant and seemingly insurmountable challenges piled on top of each other. Financial backers wasted everyone’s time, and then backed out. In the meantime, potential customers found cheaper phones using existing terrestrial cell phone infrastructure. So, who needed a satellite phone anyway? Well, everybody who ever travels outside of the 12% of the Earth's surface where cell towers don't reach - including the high seas, the southern and northern regions of the planet, everybody in rural locations, and those in warzones or other places were the cell towers are not functioning. The US military quickly saw Iridium phones as invaluable and crucial kit to have in the field, and everybody else who might come into harm's way quickly joined them.
In short, a great book for anybody who doesn't know about humankind's technology and assets in outer space, but relies upon them anyway. Seeing the often hidden infrastructure of our world can really broaden your understanding of the world you live in. We take it for granted, perhaps not realizing that somebody had to dream it up, design it, finance it, and then build it and operate it. And if its a commercial venture, it has to turn a profit, or otherwise it never will happen. For Iridium, it seemed that every possible obstacle stood in its way, yet somehow it happened. This book explains that "somehow it happened."
This is the first book I have come across to tell the story of a complex, technologically-innovative space project from all the angles. The explanation of the scientific and engineering aspects of designing, building, launching, and operating a complex, cutting-edge system of 66 telecommunications satellites travelling at 17,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 485 miles above the Earth in 6 orbital planes is clear and compelling, even for a non-technical person such as myself.
Ground coverage of the Iridium satellites
Equally engrossing and illuminating is the story of the difficult and frustrating business history of the Iridium company, and its difficult birth and alienation from its parent company, Motorola. The technological aspects of the satellites, their constellation, frequencies, and everything else had been settled by 1995, but the business aspects, including the financing, relations to local business affliliates across the World (for the billing of customers), and the relationship between backers and large-scale uses like the US government, seemed to be never ending and endlessly frustrating. Iridium was technologically possible, but financially, programatically, politically, administratively, and from every other angle - it appeared impossible.
A decent part of this book is the story of the Iridium CEO, Dan Colussy, fighting numerous uphill and arcane battles against all those who thought the constellation would never work, never had a good business model, and that the system of satellites should simply be allowed to de-orbit, and everybody take their losses and go home (except Motorola, who always wanted somebody else to pay for their losses - or, in legalese "indemnification"). Absolutely everybody wanted the possibility of profits, if and when they should accrue, but precisely nobody wanted the risk.
Significant and seemingly insurmountable challenges piled on top of each other. Financial backers wasted everyone’s time, and then backed out. In the meantime, potential customers found cheaper phones using existing terrestrial cell phone infrastructure. So, who needed a satellite phone anyway? Well, everybody who ever travels outside of the 12% of the Earth's surface where cell towers don't reach - including the high seas, the southern and northern regions of the planet, everybody in rural locations, and those in warzones or other places were the cell towers are not functioning. The US military quickly saw Iridium phones as invaluable and crucial kit to have in the field, and everybody else who might come into harm's way quickly joined them.
In short, a great book for anybody who doesn't know about humankind's technology and assets in outer space, but relies upon them anyway. Seeing the often hidden infrastructure of our world can really broaden your understanding of the world you live in. We take it for granted, perhaps not realizing that somebody had to dream it up, design it, finance it, and then build it and operate it. And if its a commercial venture, it has to turn a profit, or otherwise it never will happen. For Iridium, it seemed that every possible obstacle stood in its way, yet somehow it happened. This book explains that "somehow it happened."
August 18, 2018
Off to a fine start. Bloom has done his homework, and the book is full of fresh insights, insider details and cool techie stuff. For instance, I doubt you knew that Beverly Byron, an ex-Congresswoman from Maryland, was the first woman to fly in the SR-71 Blackbird. She played a role in Dan Colussy's lonely quest to save Iridium from Motorola.
My kind of book! A space-cadet's dream. With caveats, below. Overall, 3.5 stars, rounded down for the clutter. You should still read it, if you are fascinated by space and communications technology, but be prepared to power through some really dull stuff. I bogged down and set it aside, for weeks. Author Bloom committed the cardinal sin of insisting on putting every bit of his research into his book. Which is how it bulked up to 560 pages. This would have made a really good 250-300 page book.
It's still pretty good. And Dan Colussy worked miracles to buy the Iridium system out of bankruptcy, despite Motorola's strange determination to destroy the satellites. Which appeared to be a fixation of the company's then-CEO, and was at the start of Motorola's long decline, from communications giant to near-irrelevancy today. Iridium Communications survives as a niche player, for telephone service in remote areas, for deployed soldiers, and for emergency communications. Motorola didn’t get the technology wrong. It got the market wrong.
Here's the review that led me to buy a copy (of a remainder):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fall...
Another good professional review:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketco...
My kind of book! A space-cadet's dream. With caveats, below. Overall, 3.5 stars, rounded down for the clutter. You should still read it, if you are fascinated by space and communications technology, but be prepared to power through some really dull stuff. I bogged down and set it aside, for weeks. Author Bloom committed the cardinal sin of insisting on putting every bit of his research into his book. Which is how it bulked up to 560 pages. This would have made a really good 250-300 page book.
It's still pretty good. And Dan Colussy worked miracles to buy the Iridium system out of bankruptcy, despite Motorola's strange determination to destroy the satellites. Which appeared to be a fixation of the company's then-CEO, and was at the start of Motorola's long decline, from communications giant to near-irrelevancy today. Iridium Communications survives as a niche player, for telephone service in remote areas, for deployed soldiers, and for emergency communications. Motorola didn’t get the technology wrong. It got the market wrong.
Here's the review that led me to buy a copy (of a remainder):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fall...
Another good professional review:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketco...
July 6, 2016
It's odd to read a book in which one actually played an (un-credited) part. So much of this book is fun for me to read; much of it is right; a great tale about how an International Telecommunication Union vote was won is wrong--I was there. It's a shame that some key contributors (not me) go un-mentioned.
And although I haven't bothered to look up the statute of limitations on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the author could have described astoundingly audacious events without naming the names--especially since the major recipient (who is named) is dead.
I'm in no danger--I wasn't on the inside then. That doesn't mean I didn't guess the truth. Nor does it mean I didn't learn about it later, since a major investor -- one pictured in the photo section -- has the office next to mine. He cashed out of Iridium years ago--at a healthy profit, he says.
It's sad that the majority of the book is so boring. I can't imagine a non-insider caring over-much. It's true that Iridium never could have been rescued without the tireless efforts of Dan Colussy (from the outside) and Dorothy Robyn (sounds like Ro-bine) (inside the White House). But Herb Wilkins, and his $30 million, doesn't get enough credit--even though he has perhaps the best line: "I think, for the first time, I'm gonna back a White-run business."
Much later, I became involved in the company a second time, legally I assure you. And all the fuster-clucks about the non-U.S. Gateway earth stations absolutely were true. I was trying to "fix" Central and South America, which proved impossible. Almost as hard was dealing with the Radio Astronomy crowd, still looking for "Klaatu", while Iridium was trying to communicate.
The funniest moment in the book is near the end. Son-of-Iridium turned cash-flow positive three and a half years after Colussy's team bought it out of bankruptcy. It was May 9, 2004, and something was wrong; the system was crashing; overloading; calls were dropping. Technicians checked for the dreaded "anomaly"--some catastrophic event that might have destroyed one or more satellites. But, no, the spacecraft constellation looked fine. Still, what could explain the problem? Iridium could handle 98,586 simultaneous calls, and the company only had 140,000 handsets in service. It turns out it WAS possible to overload the system, IF by some odd set of circumstances, massive numbers of people were communicating to the SAME satellite:
"And that's what was happening. It was a holiday in the United States, and there were 146,000 American troops in Iraq, and there was only one phone they could depend on. Technically you weren't supposed to use an Iridium phone for a "morale call," but when you absolutely, positively had to get your call through at a certain time to a certain person, every soldier, sailor, Marine, and airman knew there was only one solution. The only solution that could max out the Iridium system was Mother's Day in a combat zone."
The collapse of Motorola is another story of the hollowing-out of American industry. But Iridium didn't fail like Detroit; it was over-engineered. And Steve Jobs stole the company's consumer market in one day.
At $6.5 billion, Iridium never could be profitable. At $25 million in bankruptcy court, debt free, with a government contract from day one, it was a sure winner. That's why the guy in the next office is a Florida (no income tax) resident, and only pops in occasionally. While I arrive every morning at 6:00 AM.
ADDED 6/14/16
Ok, I may have been a bit harsh on the book. I may have been too close to some of the players involved to be objective. The author was trying to write another "Moneyball". But John Bloom is no Michael Lewis; at best, the book comes off like the near-worthless movie adaptation of the book, where the lesson seemed to be "nice guys can win." There's no doubt Dan Colussy is a nice guy; no doubt that Motorola screwed over the Iridium system (contrary to press reports, Motorola lost only about $2 billion on Iridium). And, by virtue of buying off-the-shelf 200 gallon tanks for the hydrazine used to keep satellites in orbit, then deciding to fill them when only 50 gallons originally had been planned, the Iridium satellites supposedly designed for five years of orbital life still work after sixteen and counting.
So a final quote is appropriate:
"Three years after [Iridium was purchased out of bankruptcy], a writer for USA Today was casting about for some parallel inhuman history, but he couldn't find a precise equivalent for a $6.5 million cash outlay that resulted in possession of a resource that probably never again would be available in the whole future history of the United States. The one he came up with was from the nineteenth century, when a Virginian short of cash had to borrow $15 million to satisfy a disagreeable French dictator who controlled a lot of real estate. That deal was called the Louisiana Purchase."
ADDED July 2, 2016:
Ok, I'm still too hard on it. It's the lead book review in this week's Economist; they picked up on the same point about the hydrazine tanks. But Herb Wilkins still isn't named--he's "an American media mogul"; many will assume that refers to Bob Johnson, who ultimately didn't invest.
Still, I'm upping it a star. But I decline to check the statue of limitations on the foreign corrupt practices act.
And although I haven't bothered to look up the statute of limitations on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the author could have described astoundingly audacious events without naming the names--especially since the major recipient (who is named) is dead.
I'm in no danger--I wasn't on the inside then. That doesn't mean I didn't guess the truth. Nor does it mean I didn't learn about it later, since a major investor -- one pictured in the photo section -- has the office next to mine. He cashed out of Iridium years ago--at a healthy profit, he says.
It's sad that the majority of the book is so boring. I can't imagine a non-insider caring over-much. It's true that Iridium never could have been rescued without the tireless efforts of Dan Colussy (from the outside) and Dorothy Robyn (sounds like Ro-bine) (inside the White House). But Herb Wilkins, and his $30 million, doesn't get enough credit--even though he has perhaps the best line: "I think, for the first time, I'm gonna back a White-run business."
Much later, I became involved in the company a second time, legally I assure you. And all the fuster-clucks about the non-U.S. Gateway earth stations absolutely were true. I was trying to "fix" Central and South America, which proved impossible. Almost as hard was dealing with the Radio Astronomy crowd, still looking for "Klaatu", while Iridium was trying to communicate.
The funniest moment in the book is near the end. Son-of-Iridium turned cash-flow positive three and a half years after Colussy's team bought it out of bankruptcy. It was May 9, 2004, and something was wrong; the system was crashing; overloading; calls were dropping. Technicians checked for the dreaded "anomaly"--some catastrophic event that might have destroyed one or more satellites. But, no, the spacecraft constellation looked fine. Still, what could explain the problem? Iridium could handle 98,586 simultaneous calls, and the company only had 140,000 handsets in service. It turns out it WAS possible to overload the system, IF by some odd set of circumstances, massive numbers of people were communicating to the SAME satellite:
"And that's what was happening. It was a holiday in the United States, and there were 146,000 American troops in Iraq, and there was only one phone they could depend on. Technically you weren't supposed to use an Iridium phone for a "morale call," but when you absolutely, positively had to get your call through at a certain time to a certain person, every soldier, sailor, Marine, and airman knew there was only one solution. The only solution that could max out the Iridium system was Mother's Day in a combat zone."
The collapse of Motorola is another story of the hollowing-out of American industry. But Iridium didn't fail like Detroit; it was over-engineered. And Steve Jobs stole the company's consumer market in one day.
At $6.5 billion, Iridium never could be profitable. At $25 million in bankruptcy court, debt free, with a government contract from day one, it was a sure winner. That's why the guy in the next office is a Florida (no income tax) resident, and only pops in occasionally. While I arrive every morning at 6:00 AM.
ADDED 6/14/16
Ok, I may have been a bit harsh on the book. I may have been too close to some of the players involved to be objective. The author was trying to write another "Moneyball". But John Bloom is no Michael Lewis; at best, the book comes off like the near-worthless movie adaptation of the book, where the lesson seemed to be "nice guys can win." There's no doubt Dan Colussy is a nice guy; no doubt that Motorola screwed over the Iridium system (contrary to press reports, Motorola lost only about $2 billion on Iridium). And, by virtue of buying off-the-shelf 200 gallon tanks for the hydrazine used to keep satellites in orbit, then deciding to fill them when only 50 gallons originally had been planned, the Iridium satellites supposedly designed for five years of orbital life still work after sixteen and counting.
So a final quote is appropriate:
"Three years after [Iridium was purchased out of bankruptcy], a writer for USA Today was casting about for some parallel inhuman history, but he couldn't find a precise equivalent for a $6.5 million cash outlay that resulted in possession of a resource that probably never again would be available in the whole future history of the United States. The one he came up with was from the nineteenth century, when a Virginian short of cash had to borrow $15 million to satisfy a disagreeable French dictator who controlled a lot of real estate. That deal was called the Louisiana Purchase."
ADDED July 2, 2016:
Ok, I'm still too hard on it. It's the lead book review in this week's Economist; they picked up on the same point about the hydrazine tanks. But Herb Wilkins still isn't named--he's "an American media mogul"; many will assume that refers to Bob Johnson, who ultimately didn't invest.
Still, I'm upping it a star. But I decline to check the statue of limitations on the foreign corrupt practices act.
June 25, 2017
This is an excellent book to tell the legendary stories of Iridium, the first true globally covered satellite communication system in human history. I recommend the book as a must-read for the MBA case study about innovation, company governance, product marketing, globalization, fund raising, government relationship, bankrupt and company turnaround. Anyone who is interested in aerospace, rocket&satellite history and telecommunications will definitely have fun too. John Bloom the author wrote the book with the solid facts and clear narratives about the extremely complicated development of Iridium system. His writing is highly enjoyable with some touchy lines. When read to the last line of the story, "Iridium satellites would fly into perpetuity ", I was deeply moved. It's the victory of human dreams, business and ideals.
October 18, 2018
Iridium. A constellation of 66 satellites moving in low fast planes, north and south, over the Poles. The satellites travel at 16,776 miles an hour, fast enough to pass over the North Pole every 100 minutes. An engineering and scientific marvel. Truly amazing.
Even more astonishing though is the epic screw up by Motorola’s management that almost led to the demise of the whole constellation. Marketing Iridium sat phone services to uninterested 'international business travelers'? Squeezing Iridium for exorbitant service fees right after its start without any long-term thinking? Acting super rigidly during subsequent rescue attempts? Just a few terrifying examples of how shortsighted and inflexible a multinational enterprise can turn out to be. Obviously, Iridium was only one of several business segments within Motorola but after having read this book it is quite understandable why Motorola has gone to bust with this kind of mentality.
Even more astonishing though is the epic screw up by Motorola’s management that almost led to the demise of the whole constellation. Marketing Iridium sat phone services to uninterested 'international business travelers'? Squeezing Iridium for exorbitant service fees right after its start without any long-term thinking? Acting super rigidly during subsequent rescue attempts? Just a few terrifying examples of how shortsighted and inflexible a multinational enterprise can turn out to be. Obviously, Iridium was only one of several business segments within Motorola but after having read this book it is quite understandable why Motorola has gone to bust with this kind of mentality.
November 18, 2016
So this was a 20-hour long audiobook mostly about backroom business deals and stock prices and I could not. stop. listening.
To be fair it also delved into quite a bit of very interesting history and the fantastically involved science required to launch more than 77 comsats into orbit, which is more my speed, but even those topics risk a bit of, shall we say, a need to be moisturized, and this was just stellar. I was riveted and frustrated the whole way through, which is the only proper response to the levels of bureaucracy and corporate greed outlined in this story. Really good if you like financial or science biographies.
To be fair it also delved into quite a bit of very interesting history and the fantastically involved science required to launch more than 77 comsats into orbit, which is more my speed, but even those topics risk a bit of, shall we say, a need to be moisturized, and this was just stellar. I was riveted and frustrated the whole way through, which is the only proper response to the levels of bureaucracy and corporate greed outlined in this story. Really good if you like financial or science biographies.
July 5, 2016
It WAS amazing! The tech is amazing, the story is amazing, the business is amazing (though convoluted, complicated, and impossible to follow), and the ending...! Heroes AND villains! (And incompetents.) Engagingly written.
May 19, 2020
This was a fairly enjoyable book, but there are at least two issues that keep me from giving it a full five stars. The first issue is that while it starts with a great pace, the middle felt a bit bogged down in biography after biography of the different people involved. I don't mind some tangents, but it sometimes felt like the thread of the story was being lost. It does recover a better pace about halfway-through, though, so I still found it engaging as a book overall.
The second is that there are no citations in the book, with the sources listed at the end but never referenced in the main text. It is pretty clear that interviews also made up a large portion of the research and it would have been nice if there was some way of indicating who said what to Bloom so that we could evaluate the credibility of the source to the events.
The book is mostly the story of Dan Colussy and his quest to buy Iridium from bankruptcy. The Iridium satellite constellation was a voice (and later data) constellation mostly made by Motorola to provide worldwide coverage. We learn the history, the regulations, the players who invested, and eventually the likely future of these satellites. Iridium became known as a failure, but then rose again with a different, successful business plan.
The story has ups and downs, betrayal, and plenty of drama, so that when you are unfamiliar with the story (as I was), you naturally want to keep reading to see what happens. Bloom summarizes the information well, and gives the story to you in a way that made it comprehensible (only rarely was the chronology hard to follow, which is impressive given how much was going on). Bloom likes to go into tangents in the footnotes and sometimes in the text (at least, if you consider some of the biographies of the people tangents), but I mostly found these fun diversions that were related to the main story.
I would also caution that Bloom rarely speaks about the technology in Iridium (probably for the better), and that there are some minor technicalities that he may get wrong there (see other reviews, for example, Dr. Terrence McGarty on Amazon), but these are usually small corrections (such as someone else having done some aspect of Iridium before, so that it was not completely novel), and are not important to the main story of Iridium. The book also uses hyperbole about the technological revolution of Iridium, in my opinion. It is compared to the Manhattan project in complexity, which is clearly not true (the Manhattan project involved the creation of several small towns), and while Iridium technology was competently done, it seems more like an impressive innovation than some amazing technological breakthrough. Satellites connecting to other in space is impressive, but I think the book tries to make Iridium seem too much like a technological revolution when it was a more modest, but still impressive achievement.
The book is a bit long, but I enjoyed it throughout and learned a lot about a service I didn't remember. The story is mostly business focused, but you will still learn the basics of what Iridium was and how it was different than other satellite constellations of the time. You also learn the history of Motorola and how businesses talk with regulators and vice versa.
The second is that there are no citations in the book, with the sources listed at the end but never referenced in the main text. It is pretty clear that interviews also made up a large portion of the research and it would have been nice if there was some way of indicating who said what to Bloom so that we could evaluate the credibility of the source to the events.
The book is mostly the story of Dan Colussy and his quest to buy Iridium from bankruptcy. The Iridium satellite constellation was a voice (and later data) constellation mostly made by Motorola to provide worldwide coverage. We learn the history, the regulations, the players who invested, and eventually the likely future of these satellites. Iridium became known as a failure, but then rose again with a different, successful business plan.
The story has ups and downs, betrayal, and plenty of drama, so that when you are unfamiliar with the story (as I was), you naturally want to keep reading to see what happens. Bloom summarizes the information well, and gives the story to you in a way that made it comprehensible (only rarely was the chronology hard to follow, which is impressive given how much was going on). Bloom likes to go into tangents in the footnotes and sometimes in the text (at least, if you consider some of the biographies of the people tangents), but I mostly found these fun diversions that were related to the main story.
I would also caution that Bloom rarely speaks about the technology in Iridium (probably for the better), and that there are some minor technicalities that he may get wrong there (see other reviews, for example, Dr. Terrence McGarty on Amazon), but these are usually small corrections (such as someone else having done some aspect of Iridium before, so that it was not completely novel), and are not important to the main story of Iridium. The book also uses hyperbole about the technological revolution of Iridium, in my opinion. It is compared to the Manhattan project in complexity, which is clearly not true (the Manhattan project involved the creation of several small towns), and while Iridium technology was competently done, it seems more like an impressive innovation than some amazing technological breakthrough. Satellites connecting to other in space is impressive, but I think the book tries to make Iridium seem too much like a technological revolution when it was a more modest, but still impressive achievement.
The book is a bit long, but I enjoyed it throughout and learned a lot about a service I didn't remember. The story is mostly business focused, but you will still learn the basics of what Iridium was and how it was different than other satellite constellations of the time. You also learn the history of Motorola and how businesses talk with regulators and vice versa.
January 2, 2017
There are three main Iridium threads through this book: business (mostly boring), politics (interesting in a train-wrecky kinda way), and engineering (absolutely spell-binding).
Iridium was a telecommunications tragedy. An engineering marvel and a business disaster. The catalyst for a comsat space race and the poster-child for the irrational business model. And somehow it came out the other side providing value in several markets.
But it could have been different! In a not-too-distant parallel universe, where a few critical decisions (gateways/signal strength/less infighting) were made differently and deployment didn't take decades, satellite phones are king and telecommunications infrastructure is entirely orbital.
p. 114, re: year 1992 "The idea of putting all the cell towers in the skies was seen by most as a neon lightbulb moment, a realization that yes, we'd been doing it all wrong, and surely the cell-phone future would belong to whoever owned the coolest satellites."
p. 205 "What if a $6 billion company opened for business - and nobody came?"
p. 453 "The bottom line is everything about a world using satellite phones would have been safer and probably cheaper as well. Only about 12 percent of Earth will ever be covered by terrestrial cell towers. Systems ... work only within range of a tower, whereas Iridium keeps you safe in places that don't even show up on the map. Every time disaster strikes, in the form of earthquakes or fires or hurricanes or bombings, the first thing that goes down is the cellular phone system.
... seems to be that Iridium's backers, frightened by the debt burden, simply gave up too soon, and Motorola failed to show the kind of leadership that would have carried the company through a Chapter 11 reorganization ... "Then, once Iridium so publicly crashed and burned, there was the perception by every other company that 'if Motorola couldn't make that thing work, then nobody can.' And all the mythology surrounding the company - it was a fancy, wrongheaded science project; it was analog; it was worthless for data; it was too elaborate and expensive to keep flying - not only enveloped the inexperienced partners in gloom but stuck to the company for years to come. "
Iridium was a telecommunications tragedy. An engineering marvel and a business disaster. The catalyst for a comsat space race and the poster-child for the irrational business model. And somehow it came out the other side providing value in several markets.
But it could have been different! In a not-too-distant parallel universe, where a few critical decisions (gateways/signal strength/less infighting) were made differently and deployment didn't take decades, satellite phones are king and telecommunications infrastructure is entirely orbital.
p. 114, re: year 1992 "The idea of putting all the cell towers in the skies was seen by most as a neon lightbulb moment, a realization that yes, we'd been doing it all wrong, and surely the cell-phone future would belong to whoever owned the coolest satellites."
p. 205 "What if a $6 billion company opened for business - and nobody came?"
p. 453 "The bottom line is everything about a world using satellite phones would have been safer and probably cheaper as well. Only about 12 percent of Earth will ever be covered by terrestrial cell towers. Systems ... work only within range of a tower, whereas Iridium keeps you safe in places that don't even show up on the map. Every time disaster strikes, in the form of earthquakes or fires or hurricanes or bombings, the first thing that goes down is the cellular phone system.
... seems to be that Iridium's backers, frightened by the debt burden, simply gave up too soon, and Motorola failed to show the kind of leadership that would have carried the company through a Chapter 11 reorganization ... "Then, once Iridium so publicly crashed and burned, there was the perception by every other company that 'if Motorola couldn't make that thing work, then nobody can.' And all the mythology surrounding the company - it was a fancy, wrongheaded science project; it was analog; it was worthless for data; it was too elaborate and expensive to keep flying - not only enveloped the inexperienced partners in gloom but stuck to the company for years to come. "
April 30, 2016
This book could read a bit like an action-adventure thriller; it has intrigue, financial problems, boardroom actions, drama and the works. That it is a true story concerning a bunch of satellites is neither here or there; it is a good story whether you are a tech or business nerd, or whether you just like reading good books!
The author has put together an engaging look at the trials and tribulations of Iridium, destined to be a revolutionary satellite communications system that would provide mobile communications anywhere in the world (within the gaze of a satellite). Telecommunications giant Motorola had developed this grand idea in the early 1990s and invested heavily in this direction. Yet it was not to be, financial and operational pressures took their toll and it was decided to cut the losses and run. The company was USD11 billion in debt, eating up USD100m a month in costs and what few customers it had barely made a dent on its financial performance.
A rescue plan was created by a charismatic business leader who believed in the system and its future, yet he was needing to fight both Motorola, its partners and even potential investors alike at the same time as trying to piece together a rescue plan. Many false starts, missed promises, shutdown threats and much more beside gave this story a lot of twists and turns. Parts of the U.S. government were not so keen to lose a working system, something that was working better than military equivalents in many situations, and thus you even got parts of senior government and the White House working to find a way to save Iridium.
The author has done an excellent job in taking a fairly complex story and making it into a readable book that is not dumbed down in any way. Other authors looking to write similar business-related books could well be advised to use this as a guideline. You get more than just a great story about a major business failure; you also get a sneak-peek into the dysfunctional elements of big business, finance and the government to boot. What is there not to like?
A real five-star, read-every-word-sort of book that will educate, inform and delight the inquisitive reader!
The author has put together an engaging look at the trials and tribulations of Iridium, destined to be a revolutionary satellite communications system that would provide mobile communications anywhere in the world (within the gaze of a satellite). Telecommunications giant Motorola had developed this grand idea in the early 1990s and invested heavily in this direction. Yet it was not to be, financial and operational pressures took their toll and it was decided to cut the losses and run. The company was USD11 billion in debt, eating up USD100m a month in costs and what few customers it had barely made a dent on its financial performance.
A rescue plan was created by a charismatic business leader who believed in the system and its future, yet he was needing to fight both Motorola, its partners and even potential investors alike at the same time as trying to piece together a rescue plan. Many false starts, missed promises, shutdown threats and much more beside gave this story a lot of twists and turns. Parts of the U.S. government were not so keen to lose a working system, something that was working better than military equivalents in many situations, and thus you even got parts of senior government and the White House working to find a way to save Iridium.
The author has done an excellent job in taking a fairly complex story and making it into a readable book that is not dumbed down in any way. Other authors looking to write similar business-related books could well be advised to use this as a guideline. You get more than just a great story about a major business failure; you also get a sneak-peek into the dysfunctional elements of big business, finance and the government to boot. What is there not to like?
A real five-star, read-every-word-sort of book that will educate, inform and delight the inquisitive reader!
May 8, 2018
This is a very detailed telling of a pretty boring business story. I liked it more than you might expect. It was a nice change of pace to hear the gory details from business, a topic I don't usually read about. Most of the time I ignored the 4th wall and really got into the characters and their impressive dedication to saving (or destroying) these satellites.
One issue really bothered me towards the end. Motorola was made out to be the villain for wanting to deorbit the constellation. This mysterious motivation is alluded to as protection from liability if anyone were to get hit by falling debris. It seems to me this is not only mysterious but probably incomplete/incorrect. It seems obvious that the manufacturer would only be liable if there was a manufacturing problem with the devices themselves. We're given a hint in the book that only a few components would survive atmospheric reentry. It seems to me like Motorola was acting like they knew it was a manufacturing mistake to build these satellites using parts that could survive reentry! This was never spelled out and it seems like the only reason not to connect these two dots is so the author can make them out to be the bad guys. Which is dishonest to the reader.
The author tries to make it sound like Iridium was (and still is) a good consumer option. It possibly was back in the '90s but due to the low frequency band it can never be a high-speed consumer option today. Physics doesn't allow it. Also the line-of-sight problem is non-trivial. It was solved by terminating calls on land-based carriers, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a satellite-only phone to begin with. It's a good emergency service device. The end.
I think everyone should read this book to get an idea of how shitty and complicated the world of business truly is.
One issue really bothered me towards the end. Motorola was made out to be the villain for wanting to deorbit the constellation. This mysterious motivation is alluded to as protection from liability if anyone were to get hit by falling debris. It seems to me this is not only mysterious but probably incomplete/incorrect. It seems obvious that the manufacturer would only be liable if there was a manufacturing problem with the devices themselves. We're given a hint in the book that only a few components would survive atmospheric reentry. It seems to me like Motorola was acting like they knew it was a manufacturing mistake to build these satellites using parts that could survive reentry! This was never spelled out and it seems like the only reason not to connect these two dots is so the author can make them out to be the bad guys. Which is dishonest to the reader.
The author tries to make it sound like Iridium was (and still is) a good consumer option. It possibly was back in the '90s but due to the low frequency band it can never be a high-speed consumer option today. Physics doesn't allow it. Also the line-of-sight problem is non-trivial. It was solved by terminating calls on land-based carriers, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a satellite-only phone to begin with. It's a good emergency service device. The end.
I think everyone should read this book to get an idea of how shitty and complicated the world of business truly is.
March 12, 2017
I enjoyed the development of the technology and satellites. However, over 5 hours of bankruptcy, long long descriptions of every CEO, potential CEO, meetings, and negotiations was just not interesting to me.
May 16, 2019
Part story of cool tech (satellite phones), part business story (project kickoff to bankruptcy and beyond) and part biography of Dan Colussy. The David and Goliath aspect of the third part is what the author is most excited to tell, the first part is what I most wanted to read.
The cool tech is very cool, and describes the Iridium solution in detail while delivering plenty of comparisons to competing solutions. Many investors were in it primarily for that aspect, and I am glad that it is a major part of the story. The business story goes into a LOT of detail, and is at times numbing. I was grateful for the detailed history of Motorola, though the author really paints them as the bad guy here.
The biography and description of Colussy's struggle also spared no details, and aspects of Dan gathering millions to avoid the latest deorbit deadline were not as interesting to me as to the author. In the end, a solid book, if a little long. 3½ stars.
The cool tech is very cool, and describes the Iridium solution in detail while delivering plenty of comparisons to competing solutions. Many investors were in it primarily for that aspect, and I am glad that it is a major part of the story. The business story goes into a LOT of detail, and is at times numbing. I was grateful for the detailed history of Motorola, though the author really paints them as the bad guy here.
The biography and description of Colussy's struggle also spared no details, and aspects of Dan gathering millions to avoid the latest deorbit deadline were not as interesting to me as to the author. In the end, a solid book, if a little long. 3½ stars.
December 7, 2023
For fans of drive-in movie critic and host Joe Bob Briggs, this reads like an extended version of one of his famous filmmaking history lessons/rants.
For others, this is an interesting and detailed account of the fall of Motorola and the perseverance of Iridium.
For others, this is an interesting and detailed account of the fall of Motorola and the perseverance of Iridium.
January 17, 2018
Loved the descriptions of the technology and personalities, but the regulatory aspects lost my attention
October 4, 2017
Some of my favorite nonfiction books are the ones that give me a peek at a whole different world-- one I didn't realize existed. If they're really good they even give me a sense of what it's like to live there. Eccentric Orbits is that kind of book. It tossed me into a world inhabited by venture capitalists, high-tech titans, insurers, Pentagon brass, lobbyists, government "fixers", bureaucrats, and politicians-- a world where the lowest numbers worth mentioning are in the millions of dollars, and decisions based on gut feelings or force of personality shape the world we live in.
At bottom, Eccentric Orbits is the story of one man's crusade to save a groundbreaking 6-billion-dollar satellite communications system from being simply thrown away-- a battle of wills against any number of bureaucrats, unfriendly business interests, and panicky investors who would have rather seen it die. After introducing the subject, Bloom spends the next few chapters provide a surprisingly agile history of the entire Iridium system-- its genesis in mid-twentieth-century satellite projects, its improbable development from within tradition-bound communications titan Motorola, the epic endeavor to make the satellites a reality, and the equally spectacular failure of the company to sell its product. But in the latter half of the book he really gets to the meat of the story: former airline executive Dan Colussy's quixotic quest to buy Iridium and make it profitable again.
Unfortunately this second half of the book is a bit less light on its feet than the first, if only because the actual events being described are so much more unbelievable. The Motorola president becomes obsessed with getting rid of Iridium and any possible liability from it; Clinton-era bureaucrats hold up the destruction because of fears that crashing satellites will endanger the public; a secretive DoD-affiliated technologist sets up a Pentagon contract for Iridium; bids for the company are submitted by all manner of speculators and frauds; White House staffers engage in "The West Wing"-worthy scrambles to keep the system alive; and Colussy finally teams up with a camera-shy Arab prince and TV mogul friends of Jesse Jackson to submit the successful bid. In short, this is sausage-making at its frantic, untidy, astonishing best (and worst). This world, and the sheer difficulty of making something worthwhile happen at such high levels, has never been captured this well that I know of. That's what makes Eccentric Orbits worth reading.
At bottom, Eccentric Orbits is the story of one man's crusade to save a groundbreaking 6-billion-dollar satellite communications system from being simply thrown away-- a battle of wills against any number of bureaucrats, unfriendly business interests, and panicky investors who would have rather seen it die. After introducing the subject, Bloom spends the next few chapters provide a surprisingly agile history of the entire Iridium system-- its genesis in mid-twentieth-century satellite projects, its improbable development from within tradition-bound communications titan Motorola, the epic endeavor to make the satellites a reality, and the equally spectacular failure of the company to sell its product. But in the latter half of the book he really gets to the meat of the story: former airline executive Dan Colussy's quixotic quest to buy Iridium and make it profitable again.
Unfortunately this second half of the book is a bit less light on its feet than the first, if only because the actual events being described are so much more unbelievable. The Motorola president becomes obsessed with getting rid of Iridium and any possible liability from it; Clinton-era bureaucrats hold up the destruction because of fears that crashing satellites will endanger the public; a secretive DoD-affiliated technologist sets up a Pentagon contract for Iridium; bids for the company are submitted by all manner of speculators and frauds; White House staffers engage in "The West Wing"-worthy scrambles to keep the system alive; and Colussy finally teams up with a camera-shy Arab prince and TV mogul friends of Jesse Jackson to submit the successful bid. In short, this is sausage-making at its frantic, untidy, astonishing best (and worst). This world, and the sheer difficulty of making something worthwhile happen at such high levels, has never been captured this well that I know of. That's what makes Eccentric Orbits worth reading.
April 24, 2016
Wow, first reviewer. I don't think that's ever happened before. This book was a wonderful surprise. And thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for letting me read it pre-publication. Behind my former English major disguise, there lies a bit of a science geek. I also have an interest in business stories and the workings of how things get done (or not) in our labyrinthine Federal government since I've been working in that world for almost 30 years. So this book hit all my buttons. Without rehashing the synopsis, it's the story of the birth of the Iridium satellite phone and the company. It plays out like a Shakespearean business drama with lots of intrigue, back room deals, suspenseful deadlines, inept and possibly nefarious big corporations (hint: Motorola is the villain here), and so much more. It was truly fascinating. My only small complaint is that it is pretty long. Maybe it could use some tighter editing, but I don't recall ever feeling like too many words were being wasted or that was there was an abundance of repetition. But the length might be off-putting to some. That is a minor complaint though, and I highly recommend this book.
November 13, 2016
Traces the history of Iridium from the founding of Motorola through the 2000s. Most of the plot centers around the near-death of Iridium. The massive constellation was nearly de-orbited! Bill Clinton got involved via backchannels to try to save what turned out to be a critical defense asset. Executives from Black Entertainment Television and a shady Saudi prince got involved in the bailout, helping Dan Colussy bailout the failing firm.
Coolest bit: On May 9th, 2004, the network became overloaded. The Iridium engineers couldn't initially figure it out. The only way the network could get overloaded was from a bunch of calls in the same geographic region hitting the same satellite.
Indeed, that was the problem. Although morale calls weren't allowed via military Iridium phones, it was Mother's Day in a combat zone.
That part made me tear up a bit. Never thought I'd get emotional about a sat-phone.
Coolest bit: On May 9th, 2004, the network became overloaded. The Iridium engineers couldn't initially figure it out. The only way the network could get overloaded was from a bunch of calls in the same geographic region hitting the same satellite.
Indeed, that was the problem. Although morale calls weren't allowed via military Iridium phones, it was Mother's Day in a combat zone.
That part made me tear up a bit. Never thought I'd get emotional about a sat-phone.
September 26, 2016
Okay, be prepared. This story is fascinating, but pretty long and somewhat of a slog to finish. That's only because it was so thoroughly researched, and the author documented every step of Dan Colussy's titanic struggle to save an unparalleled technological advancement that cost billions to create and was going to be tossed on the trash heap of history due to poor business planning and a lack of investors. If you're interested in reading the world's most astounding David vs. Goliath story, read on. What Dan Colussy was able to pull off was nothing short of miraculous. Might just be me, but it looked like the hand of God reached down through this man, to save this technology for a purpose, though I have no idea what that might be. Absolutely fascinating tale.
July 23, 2020
On April 11, 2001, Dr. Ron Shemenski, the on-duty physician at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, passed a gallstone and diagnosed himself with acute pancreatitis. Stranded at one of the most remote locations on earth, his life hung in the balance as, over the next two weeks, a complex rescue mission requiring coordination on three continents was executed. Eventually, Dr. Shemenski was returned to his home in Denver, and his life was saved. The life-saving coordination was accomplished with an Iridium telephone, which was likely the only device that could have completed those critical phone calls because, thanks to a constellation of satellites, Iridium is the only phone service that can complete a call from anywhere on the planet. However, until just two weeks earlier, Iridium had been out of business. Service was restored, and Dr. Shemenski’s life was saved, thanks to the efforts of a retired airline executive and a ragtag group of investors that worked together to save a multi-billion-dollar communications system that its creator had been determined to destroy.
Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story, written by veteran investigative journalist John Bloom, is a well-written and comprehensive account of how Iridium was salvaged, how it was built, and why it initially failed as a business venture. It serves as a cautionary tale of how even the best technology is never guaranteed a market, and it details how hubris and bureaucratic gridlock can destroy a large company and how the resolve of a single person can mobilize a response at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
Conceived in 1987 by three Motorola engineers at a Chandler, Arizona skunkworks, Iridium was one of the most ambitious efforts in the history of satellite communications. It had only been a few years earlier that the first civilian satellites had been put into space, and the idea of deploying nearly 70 satellites to facilitate phone calls through switches in outer space was somewhat far fetched.
Beginning with Wernher von Braun’s defection from the Nazis to the U.S. government at the end of World War II, the author provides a potted history of satellites and the nascent civilian satellite industry leading up to the development of Iridium in the early 90s. Initially skeptical, Motorola executives soon became sold on the potential of the satellite constellation. Bob Galvin, son of Motorola founder Paul Galvin, was especially enamored, and the Chandler lab began the long process of designing and building what is now considered one of the most complicated systems ever designed by human beings.
However, Motorola had little interest in operating a telephone network. Their idea was to spin off a separate and independent company that would assume responsibility for marketing and administrative functions of the new business. Motorola intended to earn their return on investment with a lucrative contract for operating and maintaining the satellites. Perhaps as a result of this second-hand business model, they focused all their attention on the technical intricacies of the satellite network and gave little thought to who would use the service.
The primary selling point of the network was that it allowed a caller to place a phone call from anywhere on earth. Calls could be completed from the North Pole, the middle of the Pacific Ocean or an airplane flying 30,000 feet above the earth. For reasons the author neglects to fully explain, Motorola was convinced the ideal candidate for Iridium was the international business traveler, but this turned out to be a fatally flawed marketing plan. The phone never caught on with international business travelers, and just sixteen months after the new company was launched in the late 90s, it filed for bankruptcy.
This takes us to the heart of the story. For reasons that at times seem inscrutable, Motorola was absolutely determined to “deorbit” (read destroy) their creation. However, at some point during the bankruptcy process, Dan Colussy, the aforementioned retired airline executive, got wind of the story and began researching options for buying Iridium out of bankruptcy. Colussy seems an unlikely candidate for this endeavor. He had no experience in the telecommunications industry and, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that he had limited access to the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to save Iridium. But what he lacked in resources he made up with an iron will. While reading the book, I lost count of the number of times Colussy encountered what appeared to be insurmountable hurdles to getting a deal done. A less determined person would have simply walked away from the deal and resumed their comfortable retirement.
It seems that every story such as this needs a bureaucratic hero, and the author assigns that role to Dorothy Robyn a White House staffer in the Clinton administration who seemed almost as determined as Colussy to save Iridium. From there, the author weaves the story through a maze of government staffers and agencies who took positions on both sides of Iridium. Some felt Iridium was vital to the government and others felt the government had no business meddling in the affairs of a bankrupt satellite company.
The villain of the story is clearly Motorola. In fact, Motorola comes across as such a malignant force in this story that the reader begins to suspect the author is purposefully downplaying their legitimate reasons for wanting to destroy the satellites in order to give his story more artistic flair, and since the story involves objects in space, Star Wars fans will likely recognize a certain Luke Skywalker versus the Death Star element to the story.
And the story needs dramatic flair to maintain the reader’s interest. Much of this tale unfolds in meetings between Colussy, his investment team and various government bureaucrats; and the author seems determined to detail every single meeting. While such granular detail helps the reader appreciate the challenges that Colussy faced, it also tends to induce sleep.
Regardless, this is a story that deserves to be told, and, just as Colussy salvaged the satellites, the author has salvaged Colussy's story. There are countless business case studies to be found in these pages, but, perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates how the resolve of a single person can move the levers of government and reverse even the most determined plans of powerful corporations.
Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story, written by veteran investigative journalist John Bloom, is a well-written and comprehensive account of how Iridium was salvaged, how it was built, and why it initially failed as a business venture. It serves as a cautionary tale of how even the best technology is never guaranteed a market, and it details how hubris and bureaucratic gridlock can destroy a large company and how the resolve of a single person can mobilize a response at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
Conceived in 1987 by three Motorola engineers at a Chandler, Arizona skunkworks, Iridium was one of the most ambitious efforts in the history of satellite communications. It had only been a few years earlier that the first civilian satellites had been put into space, and the idea of deploying nearly 70 satellites to facilitate phone calls through switches in outer space was somewhat far fetched.
Beginning with Wernher von Braun’s defection from the Nazis to the U.S. government at the end of World War II, the author provides a potted history of satellites and the nascent civilian satellite industry leading up to the development of Iridium in the early 90s. Initially skeptical, Motorola executives soon became sold on the potential of the satellite constellation. Bob Galvin, son of Motorola founder Paul Galvin, was especially enamored, and the Chandler lab began the long process of designing and building what is now considered one of the most complicated systems ever designed by human beings.
However, Motorola had little interest in operating a telephone network. Their idea was to spin off a separate and independent company that would assume responsibility for marketing and administrative functions of the new business. Motorola intended to earn their return on investment with a lucrative contract for operating and maintaining the satellites. Perhaps as a result of this second-hand business model, they focused all their attention on the technical intricacies of the satellite network and gave little thought to who would use the service.
The primary selling point of the network was that it allowed a caller to place a phone call from anywhere on earth. Calls could be completed from the North Pole, the middle of the Pacific Ocean or an airplane flying 30,000 feet above the earth. For reasons the author neglects to fully explain, Motorola was convinced the ideal candidate for Iridium was the international business traveler, but this turned out to be a fatally flawed marketing plan. The phone never caught on with international business travelers, and just sixteen months after the new company was launched in the late 90s, it filed for bankruptcy.
This takes us to the heart of the story. For reasons that at times seem inscrutable, Motorola was absolutely determined to “deorbit” (read destroy) their creation. However, at some point during the bankruptcy process, Dan Colussy, the aforementioned retired airline executive, got wind of the story and began researching options for buying Iridium out of bankruptcy. Colussy seems an unlikely candidate for this endeavor. He had no experience in the telecommunications industry and, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that he had limited access to the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to save Iridium. But what he lacked in resources he made up with an iron will. While reading the book, I lost count of the number of times Colussy encountered what appeared to be insurmountable hurdles to getting a deal done. A less determined person would have simply walked away from the deal and resumed their comfortable retirement.
It seems that every story such as this needs a bureaucratic hero, and the author assigns that role to Dorothy Robyn a White House staffer in the Clinton administration who seemed almost as determined as Colussy to save Iridium. From there, the author weaves the story through a maze of government staffers and agencies who took positions on both sides of Iridium. Some felt Iridium was vital to the government and others felt the government had no business meddling in the affairs of a bankrupt satellite company.
The villain of the story is clearly Motorola. In fact, Motorola comes across as such a malignant force in this story that the reader begins to suspect the author is purposefully downplaying their legitimate reasons for wanting to destroy the satellites in order to give his story more artistic flair, and since the story involves objects in space, Star Wars fans will likely recognize a certain Luke Skywalker versus the Death Star element to the story.
And the story needs dramatic flair to maintain the reader’s interest. Much of this tale unfolds in meetings between Colussy, his investment team and various government bureaucrats; and the author seems determined to detail every single meeting. While such granular detail helps the reader appreciate the challenges that Colussy faced, it also tends to induce sleep.
Regardless, this is a story that deserves to be told, and, just as Colussy salvaged the satellites, the author has salvaged Colussy's story. There are countless business case studies to be found in these pages, but, perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates how the resolve of a single person can move the levers of government and reverse even the most determined plans of powerful corporations.
September 4, 2016
A great business story or case study. The hubris and greed of Motorola redeemed by the bankruptcy process and the commitment of one man's refusal to let a modern engineering marvel be liquidated rather than be reorganized. Big thumbs up recommendation.
March 24, 2020
Kind of a like a business version of Mission Impossible. The hero, super-businessdude Dan Colussy* (who'd run Pan Am through hijackings, the worst plane crash in history, negotiations with Ayatollah Khomeini...) takes on an impossible project: an eye-watering Motorola boondoggle consisting of 82 satellites in low-earth eccentric orbits, the most complicated engineering project since the toy in Los Alamos, and one that the parent company was determined to shut down immediately by crashing every satellites.
On the surface this doesn’t sound like an interesting topic, but it really is: firstly because whoa satellite phones haven't been replaced by iPhones, they're amazing! Cell towers only cover small areas, are hazardous to install and maintain, and wasteful. Satellite is better for remote areas and developing countries, airplane WiFi, during power failures and emergencies, cross country train rides, remote expeditions, etc. Even in much of America, rural service isn’t great! Google and Facebook have recently tried projects like O3b which use satellites, or service via balloons; so, naturally, has Elon Musk (though his plan tried to also provide service to Mars).
The second cool thing about this is that there’s something of a Robert Caro-ish/“how power works” dynamic to it. A very competent and morally ambiguous man pulls the strings at the hidden heart of America's power to accomplish his goals. (Bloom doesn’t write as well as Caro, but he has done meticulous research). Colussy had to use every trick in the book to achieve his goal, leaning on President Clinton about the potential benefits of satellite telephony to developing countries, getting the Pentagon to reluctantly claim there was a national security need for the project, and putting together a ragtag team of investors, falsely telling each one that the rest of the funding was secured. Eventually (spoiler!) he succeeded - the satellites are still in use. (But was it worth it?)
The villain of the story is Motorola, which was flailing for other reasons (mainly the personal cellphone revolution) and was able to pin much of its financial loses, and all of its reputational losses, on Iridium (which per the book had always been profitable to its parent, since much of its losses were from paying back extortionate fees to Motorola). It would be helpful to hear the side of then-CEO Chris Galvin - the company seems implausibly petty, greedy and myopic - but this is not the book for that. The other somewhat villain is Ed Staiano, the Iridium CEO who tanked the project in the first place. Bloom portrays him as the sort who is in love with his image as a tough guy, wakes up at 5:30 every morning to go jogging, never takes vacation and expects the same from his underlings. Naturally he is not only a nightmare to work for but the kind of egotist to make irresponsible commitments and refuse to modify them, dooming the company.
Motorola hoped to market the phones to international businessmen, but they were clunky and expensive and the international rollout flopped immediately. Once an American icon - it invented the Six Sigma process made famous by (lately departed) Jack Welch - the company couldn’t compete with Nokia and then the iPhone, and the handsets now bearing its name (which are great! I wrote much of this on one) are made by a subsidiary of Lenovo.
Bloom’s book is often funny (I liked the Orthodox Jewish lawyer with a massive “network of rabbis” who can get information from anywhere). He takes a businessy perspective to things, cheerfully shameless about Colussy using government connections to bail out a doomed project, and indemnify Motorola for more than any insurance company was prepared to do. He wraps up with Iridium’s incredible success today: the satellites still up, the tool increasingly essential at sea, on Everest, in Navy SEAL operations, during disasters, a form of communication that has signal everywhere and based on breathtaking engineering. At the turn of the millennium no-one could see the project’s merits, but today it must surely rank with one of the best, unsung, modern technologies.
*Apparently Colussy commissioned Bloom to write the book, which explains why he comes off so well in it, and why it is considerably longer than it needed to be. (I’m glad he did it, though.)
On the surface this doesn’t sound like an interesting topic, but it really is: firstly because whoa satellite phones haven't been replaced by iPhones, they're amazing! Cell towers only cover small areas, are hazardous to install and maintain, and wasteful. Satellite is better for remote areas and developing countries, airplane WiFi, during power failures and emergencies, cross country train rides, remote expeditions, etc. Even in much of America, rural service isn’t great! Google and Facebook have recently tried projects like O3b which use satellites, or service via balloons; so, naturally, has Elon Musk (though his plan tried to also provide service to Mars).
The second cool thing about this is that there’s something of a Robert Caro-ish/“how power works” dynamic to it. A very competent and morally ambiguous man pulls the strings at the hidden heart of America's power to accomplish his goals. (Bloom doesn’t write as well as Caro, but he has done meticulous research). Colussy had to use every trick in the book to achieve his goal, leaning on President Clinton about the potential benefits of satellite telephony to developing countries, getting the Pentagon to reluctantly claim there was a national security need for the project, and putting together a ragtag team of investors, falsely telling each one that the rest of the funding was secured. Eventually (spoiler!) he succeeded - the satellites are still in use. (But was it worth it?)
The villain of the story is Motorola, which was flailing for other reasons (mainly the personal cellphone revolution) and was able to pin much of its financial loses, and all of its reputational losses, on Iridium (which per the book had always been profitable to its parent, since much of its losses were from paying back extortionate fees to Motorola). It would be helpful to hear the side of then-CEO Chris Galvin - the company seems implausibly petty, greedy and myopic - but this is not the book for that. The other somewhat villain is Ed Staiano, the Iridium CEO who tanked the project in the first place. Bloom portrays him as the sort who is in love with his image as a tough guy, wakes up at 5:30 every morning to go jogging, never takes vacation and expects the same from his underlings. Naturally he is not only a nightmare to work for but the kind of egotist to make irresponsible commitments and refuse to modify them, dooming the company.
Motorola hoped to market the phones to international businessmen, but they were clunky and expensive and the international rollout flopped immediately. Once an American icon - it invented the Six Sigma process made famous by (lately departed) Jack Welch - the company couldn’t compete with Nokia and then the iPhone, and the handsets now bearing its name (which are great! I wrote much of this on one) are made by a subsidiary of Lenovo.
Bloom’s book is often funny (I liked the Orthodox Jewish lawyer with a massive “network of rabbis” who can get information from anywhere). He takes a businessy perspective to things, cheerfully shameless about Colussy using government connections to bail out a doomed project, and indemnify Motorola for more than any insurance company was prepared to do. He wraps up with Iridium’s incredible success today: the satellites still up, the tool increasingly essential at sea, on Everest, in Navy SEAL operations, during disasters, a form of communication that has signal everywhere and based on breathtaking engineering. At the turn of the millennium no-one could see the project’s merits, but today it must surely rank with one of the best, unsung, modern technologies.
*Apparently Colussy commissioned Bloom to write the book, which explains why he comes off so well in it, and why it is considerably longer than it needed to be. (I’m glad he did it, though.)
December 30, 2017
If the story of The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition had been written by the NY Post page 6 gossip columnist rather than Richard Rhodes you’ll get a feeling of what you’re about to read.
The good:
Iridium is probably the most interesting corporate death and resurrection story of the last 25 years. Engineering and finance driven, and sucked financially dry by Motorola, Iridium simply put its head in the sand about whether customers would actually want their product. They were literally stunned when customers didn’t behave as their business plan said they should.
The book tells the unbelievable rescue of Iridium by Dan Colussy and an unlikely set of allies. If even half of it is true Dan deserves a business medal of honor. (And Motorola management deserved everything that happened to them in the 21st century.)
The bad:
As per the authors note, “I researched the book with face-to-face interviews, letting people tell their own stories, and then filled in the rest of the narrative with archival material.
Therein lies the problem. This really isn’t a business book. It’s a bunch of guys sitting around (primarily Dan Colussy) telling business war stories to a writer - who never figured out how to make sense of it all.
1) Imagine a technical and business story written by a gossip columnist and you’ll understand the constant stream of long drawn-out biographies, anecdotes that sounded like they came after a few drinks, bizarre suppositions, and missed insights. Individually they're stories you might throw out as one-offs, but reading them page after page for no discernible purpose in the narrative made them exhausting.
2) The story would have been much better told if an editor would have insisted that the book be half or maybe 2/3rds its length. But that would have required understanding which of the stories were important and what were the lessons to be learned. Instead we get an almost daily diary of Dan Colussy’s meetings, phone calls, plane flights etc.
3) Iridium was an engineering marvel, but other than stringing together boilerplate phrases and paraphrases from his sources the result is “technology word hash" – words that strung together appear to mean something but don’t. The Iridium system was brilliant. The satellites were worthy of something more than the cursory description. Instead the author gets sidetracked into a content-free discussion of the choice of rocket suppliers. Unfortunately, Dan Colossi and most of the cast of characters interviewed came after the satellites were designed and built.
4) Iridium failed when the original business case for the phone didn’t match the market (cellular adoption was growing rapidly, the phone wouldn’t work indoors, the phone looked like a brick and was unlikely to be a status symbol,) no one seemed to blow the whistle and say, “let’s pivot to a different set of customers and stop hemorrhaging money on this one.” Or, instead of complaining about the enormous cash-drain Motorola was extorting from the company, why any of their CEOs didn’t have the guts to threaten chapter 11 to slash that burn rate. Spending more than a few paragraphs on that would have actually made this a business book. Unfortunately, Dan Colussy and most of the cast of characters interviewed came after that debacle.
5) After 500 pages you would think there would be some insight or lessons learned from the author or any of the participants. Nope.
Summary
If you’re interested in the death and rebirth of Iridium this is barely worth the very painful read.
The good:
Iridium is probably the most interesting corporate death and resurrection story of the last 25 years. Engineering and finance driven, and sucked financially dry by Motorola, Iridium simply put its head in the sand about whether customers would actually want their product. They were literally stunned when customers didn’t behave as their business plan said they should.
The book tells the unbelievable rescue of Iridium by Dan Colussy and an unlikely set of allies. If even half of it is true Dan deserves a business medal of honor. (And Motorola management deserved everything that happened to them in the 21st century.)
The bad:
As per the authors note, “I researched the book with face-to-face interviews, letting people tell their own stories, and then filled in the rest of the narrative with archival material.
Therein lies the problem. This really isn’t a business book. It’s a bunch of guys sitting around (primarily Dan Colussy) telling business war stories to a writer - who never figured out how to make sense of it all.
1) Imagine a technical and business story written by a gossip columnist and you’ll understand the constant stream of long drawn-out biographies, anecdotes that sounded like they came after a few drinks, bizarre suppositions, and missed insights. Individually they're stories you might throw out as one-offs, but reading them page after page for no discernible purpose in the narrative made them exhausting.
2) The story would have been much better told if an editor would have insisted that the book be half or maybe 2/3rds its length. But that would have required understanding which of the stories were important and what were the lessons to be learned. Instead we get an almost daily diary of Dan Colussy’s meetings, phone calls, plane flights etc.
3) Iridium was an engineering marvel, but other than stringing together boilerplate phrases and paraphrases from his sources the result is “technology word hash" – words that strung together appear to mean something but don’t. The Iridium system was brilliant. The satellites were worthy of something more than the cursory description. Instead the author gets sidetracked into a content-free discussion of the choice of rocket suppliers. Unfortunately, Dan Colossi and most of the cast of characters interviewed came after the satellites were designed and built.
4) Iridium failed when the original business case for the phone didn’t match the market (cellular adoption was growing rapidly, the phone wouldn’t work indoors, the phone looked like a brick and was unlikely to be a status symbol,) no one seemed to blow the whistle and say, “let’s pivot to a different set of customers and stop hemorrhaging money on this one.” Or, instead of complaining about the enormous cash-drain Motorola was extorting from the company, why any of their CEOs didn’t have the guts to threaten chapter 11 to slash that burn rate. Spending more than a few paragraphs on that would have actually made this a business book. Unfortunately, Dan Colussy and most of the cast of characters interviewed came after that debacle.
5) After 500 pages you would think there would be some insight or lessons learned from the author or any of the participants. Nope.
Summary
If you’re interested in the death and rebirth of Iridium this is barely worth the very painful read.
October 25, 2017
Have you ever looked up at the sky just after sunset and seen a brief flash of light, lasting only a few seconds? More about this later.
Let's back up - you're driving on I-5 in Washington State, somewhere just south of Centralia or Chehalis let's say, and your cell phone loses connection. Or you're in the Arctic doing research, or the dessert on a military mission, on a tour in the Yucatan, or you're on a boat in any ocean and your cellphone has become nothing more than an expensive paperweight and you can't make a call. This is because you are out of cell tower range.
Enter the need for the Iridium sat-phone. It has the advantage of being able to connect at any time and anywhere on our planet to one of the 66 or so low-orbit Iridium satellites circling our globe. Obviously, if you are on an oil rig, in the military, doing research in extreme conditions, or a cartel member calling in his position from the jungle, or just driving on I-5 south of Centralia or Chehalis in Washington State, a satellite phone can be a critical piece of equipment for your mission and for your survival.
This is a fascinating book, rich with details and history. The author, John Bloom, leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to recount the history of rockets, the space program, Motorola, satellites, the Iridium program, and cellphones - not to mention the stories of the geniuses behind these achievements. He weaves it all together like a rich tapestry, clocking numerous interviews with the dreamers, doers, movers and shakers, describing their losses and their successes.
The story of the iridium program is one of genius ideas and human mistakes. It's about those who try and those who do. It about determined stubbornness and a boat load of money, sometimes wasted, sometimes paying off. It's about believers. Read this narrated non-fiction if you have ever wondered about any of these things. John Bloom is a master storyteller, funny, detail-oriented. I was lucky to get an advanced copy to read.
Back to the strong, quick flash of light at sunset... you thought I forgot, right? This flash of light is likely to be what is now known as an Iridium Flare event. Because the Iridium satellites are constantly moving (we're moving too, actually), the sides of their "bodies" catch the sun and reflect this light back at us - like a mirror. And because these satellites are in a predictable orbit, as is our sun, we can know when and where iridium flares can be seen (best out in the country away from city lights, like all astronomical viewing). Not only can you look up on the Internet the coordinates, dates and times of visible flares, there are even a number of apps that you can use (assuming you're in cell-tower range ha ha!) to position yourself to see them. I have done this a number of times and although I'm viewing a light reflecting off of a man-made object, it's still wonderful to behold.
For quick information about the Iridium Satellite, I would recommend reading the Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium...
Let's back up - you're driving on I-5 in Washington State, somewhere just south of Centralia or Chehalis let's say, and your cell phone loses connection. Or you're in the Arctic doing research, or the dessert on a military mission, on a tour in the Yucatan, or you're on a boat in any ocean and your cellphone has become nothing more than an expensive paperweight and you can't make a call. This is because you are out of cell tower range.
Enter the need for the Iridium sat-phone. It has the advantage of being able to connect at any time and anywhere on our planet to one of the 66 or so low-orbit Iridium satellites circling our globe. Obviously, if you are on an oil rig, in the military, doing research in extreme conditions, or a cartel member calling in his position from the jungle, or just driving on I-5 south of Centralia or Chehalis in Washington State, a satellite phone can be a critical piece of equipment for your mission and for your survival.
This is a fascinating book, rich with details and history. The author, John Bloom, leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to recount the history of rockets, the space program, Motorola, satellites, the Iridium program, and cellphones - not to mention the stories of the geniuses behind these achievements. He weaves it all together like a rich tapestry, clocking numerous interviews with the dreamers, doers, movers and shakers, describing their losses and their successes.
The story of the iridium program is one of genius ideas and human mistakes. It's about those who try and those who do. It about determined stubbornness and a boat load of money, sometimes wasted, sometimes paying off. It's about believers. Read this narrated non-fiction if you have ever wondered about any of these things. John Bloom is a master storyteller, funny, detail-oriented. I was lucky to get an advanced copy to read.
Back to the strong, quick flash of light at sunset... you thought I forgot, right? This flash of light is likely to be what is now known as an Iridium Flare event. Because the Iridium satellites are constantly moving (we're moving too, actually), the sides of their "bodies" catch the sun and reflect this light back at us - like a mirror. And because these satellites are in a predictable orbit, as is our sun, we can know when and where iridium flares can be seen (best out in the country away from city lights, like all astronomical viewing). Not only can you look up on the Internet the coordinates, dates and times of visible flares, there are even a number of apps that you can use (assuming you're in cell-tower range ha ha!) to position yourself to see them. I have done this a number of times and although I'm viewing a light reflecting off of a man-made object, it's still wonderful to behold.
For quick information about the Iridium Satellite, I would recommend reading the Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium...
April 15, 2019
John Bloom, known by most as his movie host persona Joe Bob Briggs, details the rise, the fall, and the rise again of Iridium, the most prolific satellite phone company in the world.
Being a fan of Joe Bob Briggs, I read this out of sheer curiosity to learn more about the man behind the redneck film guru, insofar as it comes to his interests outside the realm of B-movie cinema. I came away learning more about satellite history than I ever wanted (although it was kind of interesting) and a comprehensive breakdown of the struggle to protect an incredible piece of technology from becoming the causality of labyrinthine government bureaucracy and the unimaginative corporate bottom-line. I'll give this to Bloom - he did his research. The story Iridium is so dense with name drops, business and financial jargon, and what not that I often found myself "fast reading" by skipping over entire paragraphs. "Oh, that looks like a list of company names I won't remember and care nothing for - skip." I would often no choice but to skim just to get through the massive chapters, as they tended to be 30-50 pages long on average. So trying to knock out a chapter before bed or during a lunch break could be quite a slog.
What it all ultimately boils down to is that, while this particular subject ain't my bag, I do think technophiles and business nerds will fucking love this book. Even I managed to admire and sympathize with the relentless and often infuriating work it took to start and then later save Iridium. Hell, it was a struggle just to convince anyone it was a good idea to send up *satellites* at all back in the 60s, which is unimaginably shortsighted, but I guess new technology often runs into this kind of skepticism.
I might not have been enthralled with this book, but it's still very well researched and written in a casual "laymen" style you would expect from Bloom or, rather, Joe Bob Briggs (though Bloom's prose never *quite* gets as "blue collar" as when he's writing for his alter ego). While I didn't fun with this read, Bloom still succeeds in getting across to me the importance of a system like Iridium and now I mildly "geek out" whenever I see one in a movie. So there's that!
Being a fan of Joe Bob Briggs, I read this out of sheer curiosity to learn more about the man behind the redneck film guru, insofar as it comes to his interests outside the realm of B-movie cinema. I came away learning more about satellite history than I ever wanted (although it was kind of interesting) and a comprehensive breakdown of the struggle to protect an incredible piece of technology from becoming the causality of labyrinthine government bureaucracy and the unimaginative corporate bottom-line. I'll give this to Bloom - he did his research. The story Iridium is so dense with name drops, business and financial jargon, and what not that I often found myself "fast reading" by skipping over entire paragraphs. "Oh, that looks like a list of company names I won't remember and care nothing for - skip." I would often no choice but to skim just to get through the massive chapters, as they tended to be 30-50 pages long on average. So trying to knock out a chapter before bed or during a lunch break could be quite a slog.
What it all ultimately boils down to is that, while this particular subject ain't my bag, I do think technophiles and business nerds will fucking love this book. Even I managed to admire and sympathize with the relentless and often infuriating work it took to start and then later save Iridium. Hell, it was a struggle just to convince anyone it was a good idea to send up *satellites* at all back in the 60s, which is unimaginably shortsighted, but I guess new technology often runs into this kind of skepticism.
I might not have been enthralled with this book, but it's still very well researched and written in a casual "laymen" style you would expect from Bloom or, rather, Joe Bob Briggs (though Bloom's prose never *quite* gets as "blue collar" as when he's writing for his alter ego). While I didn't fun with this read, Bloom still succeeds in getting across to me the importance of a system like Iridium and now I mildly "geek out" whenever I see one in a movie. So there's that!
June 21, 2025
Iridium is a satellite based phone system built by Motorola in the 1990s that the Company then decided to destroy because it was not profitable. So, they spun off the business as a stand-alone operation then filed for Bankruptcy. Bloom’s book details how a determined businessman decided to save the system by buying it out of Bankruptcy and the lengths Motorola went to in trying to thwart that effort; think Corporate Hubris at its worst. Includes a lot of background on the evolution of satellite systems in general and satellite communication systems in particular. Reads like a Tom Clancy-ish suspense novel but, since it’s real life, falls into the ‘can’t make this up' genre.
What made the system unique and worth saving is that it is digital. Rather than using massive antennas to bounce radio waves off of a reflective satellite, or the Moon, Iridium uses digital signals sent direct from the phone to one of 66 satellites in Polar Orbit (orbiting Pole-to-Pole rather than the more usual orbit parallel to the Equator) and back. I will not pretend to know, or understand, how that works but it is, apparently, the only satellite phone system that works any place on earth, no matter how remote. Hence, scientists in the Antarctic, Oil rig operators, sailors at sea, special Military operations, all use Iridium phones to stay in touch. Bloom claims that Seal Team Six used an Iridium phone the night they took out Bin Laden.
The book was published in 2016 so the ‘updates’ at the end are a bit dated. But I Googled “Iridium Phones” and they are currently available for something over $1,000 depending on Model, plus calling charges. Judging by the number of options for ‘where to buy’, looks like the business is still going strong. Which makes the ‘hero’ of the story a prophet and Motorola look stupid.
What made the system unique and worth saving is that it is digital. Rather than using massive antennas to bounce radio waves off of a reflective satellite, or the Moon, Iridium uses digital signals sent direct from the phone to one of 66 satellites in Polar Orbit (orbiting Pole-to-Pole rather than the more usual orbit parallel to the Equator) and back. I will not pretend to know, or understand, how that works but it is, apparently, the only satellite phone system that works any place on earth, no matter how remote. Hence, scientists in the Antarctic, Oil rig operators, sailors at sea, special Military operations, all use Iridium phones to stay in touch. Bloom claims that Seal Team Six used an Iridium phone the night they took out Bin Laden.
The book was published in 2016 so the ‘updates’ at the end are a bit dated. But I Googled “Iridium Phones” and they are currently available for something over $1,000 depending on Model, plus calling charges. Judging by the number of options for ‘where to buy’, looks like the business is still going strong. Which makes the ‘hero’ of the story a prophet and Motorola look stupid.
July 6, 2017
I worked for Orbital Science Corp in Chandler, AZ, from 1989 to 1996. During part of that time, engineers from Motorola/Iridium occupied part of the same building. They were working on what sounded like a fantastic dream - a constellation of 77 satellites in low earth orbits that would provide phone coverage anywhere in the world 24/7. They were sealed off in part of the building - off limits to me. Some years later, I was surprised to that not only had the constellation been launched and gone operational, but Motorola was talking about deorbiting all of the satellites - sending them crashing to earth. The story faded away with no news of the deorbiting ever happening. In the last few years, I have been involved in sailing offshore and I was surprised to find that Iridium was not only alive but it was the best and cheapest service available for those wanting voice communication when they were far from land.
In passing through the airport in San Diego, I spotted Eccentric Orbits, the story of Iridium from the earliest brainstorms to the present. I half expected it to be rather dry as much of it has to do with the legal and financial maneuvering that wrested Iridium from Motorola's clutches and allowed it to fulfill the dream - and go well beyond it. While it does occasionally bog down into details that didn't interest me, it is mostly a fast moving, suspenseful story. It is a tribute to Dan Colussy who single-handedly rescued Iridium by getting money from parties as varied as a Saudi prince, the Pentagon and several other heretofor unknown parties.
There are some minor technical inaccuracies in the book but they do little to detract from the story. It is a great techno-thriller for those whose interests include space and communications technology.
In passing through the airport in San Diego, I spotted Eccentric Orbits, the story of Iridium from the earliest brainstorms to the present. I half expected it to be rather dry as much of it has to do with the legal and financial maneuvering that wrested Iridium from Motorola's clutches and allowed it to fulfill the dream - and go well beyond it. While it does occasionally bog down into details that didn't interest me, it is mostly a fast moving, suspenseful story. It is a tribute to Dan Colussy who single-handedly rescued Iridium by getting money from parties as varied as a Saudi prince, the Pentagon and several other heretofor unknown parties.
There are some minor technical inaccuracies in the book but they do little to detract from the story. It is a great techno-thriller for those whose interests include space and communications technology.
January 24, 2020
I’d be lying if I said I sought this book out because I was THAT interested in the satellite phone industry. What got me interested in the satellite phone industry and what told me a story I didn’t know I really wanted to read was author John Bloom. Best known to myself and most movie buffs as film critic and horror host Joe Bob Briggs.
Bloom tells the immense and troublesome saga of the Iridium satellite phone company in delightful Joe Bob prose with numerous digressions that always manage to come around and tie everything together. Bloom’s voice is often excitable, and his tone matches the reader’s sense of amusing disbelief regarding the monumental high technology of a global satellite phone network and the overall twists and turns of the story. It’s as if Bloom is having as much fun telling the tale as you are reading it. As well, Bloom’s meticulous research make this a remarkable piece of journalism.
The ghost of Joe Bob makes a couple of appearances as Bloom metaphorically cites both “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Hellraiser,” — both proclaimed to be two of Joe Bob’s / Bloom’s favorite movies.
Five stars. “Joe Bob says, ‘Check it out.’”
Bloom tells the immense and troublesome saga of the Iridium satellite phone company in delightful Joe Bob prose with numerous digressions that always manage to come around and tie everything together. Bloom’s voice is often excitable, and his tone matches the reader’s sense of amusing disbelief regarding the monumental high technology of a global satellite phone network and the overall twists and turns of the story. It’s as if Bloom is having as much fun telling the tale as you are reading it. As well, Bloom’s meticulous research make this a remarkable piece of journalism.
The ghost of Joe Bob makes a couple of appearances as Bloom metaphorically cites both “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Hellraiser,” — both proclaimed to be two of Joe Bob’s / Bloom’s favorite movies.
Five stars. “Joe Bob says, ‘Check it out.’”
June 23, 2017
My #1 favorite book of 2016. As someone who believes that there is usually more to be gained by studying failures rather than successes, I learned a lot about that. But it's mainly the story of one man who persevered through seemingly endless struggles with creditors, owners, investors, government agencies and fickle customers to bring a revolutionary technological system from the very brink of literal destruction back to life. If you have ever fought for something in your work life that was a labor of love rather than just a job, this will really resonate with you. I couldn't put this book down, and will probably come back to it again. The only weakness I found in the book was that there were clear heroes and villains in this telling, and in real life that is seldom so cut and dried. But the story itself was too compelling to miss.
If you have any interest in creating new markets, satellites, telecommunications, government politics or even both business failure and success stories, do yourself a favor and read this book.
If you have any interest in creating new markets, satellites, telecommunications, government politics or even both business failure and success stories, do yourself a favor and read this book.
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