9781504738170
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Eccentric Orbits audiobook

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Eccentric Orbits Audiobook Summary

The incredible story of Iridium–the most complex satellite system ever built, the cell phone of the future, and one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in American history–and one man’s desperate race to save it.

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 sixty-six 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, the Pentagon, and 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.

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Eccentric Orbits Audiobook Narrator

Donald Corren is the narrator of Eccentric Orbits audiobook that was written by John Bloom

Donald Corren is an audiobook narrator and a New York actor with leading credits on and Off-Broadway, as well as numerous television appearances. On Broadway, he costarred with Judy Kaye in the critically acclaimed production of Souvenir, and replaced Harvey Fierstein in the seminal production of Torch Song Trilogy. His Off-Broadway appearances include The Soap Myth, Dietrich & Chevalier, The Last Sunday in June, Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night, and the original New York production of Tomfoolery. His television credits include eight seasons as forensic tech Medill on NBC’s Law & Order, as well as his current role as Dr. Kurian on Syfy’s Z Nation.

About the Author(s) of Eccentric Orbits

John Bloom is the author of Eccentric Orbits

Eccentric Orbits Full Details

Narrator Donald Corren
Length 18 hours 48 minutes
Author John Bloom
Category
Publisher Blackstone Publishing
Release date April 16, 2024
ISBN 9781504738170

Subjects

The publisher of the Eccentric Orbits is Blackstone Publishing. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Business & Economics, Corporate & Business History

Additional info

The publisher of the Eccentric Orbits is Blackstone Publishing. The imprint is Blackstone Publishing. It is supplied by Blackstone Publishing. The ISBN-13 is 9781504738170.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

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