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However, the service was not widely adopted, and Iridium filed for bankruptcy after nine months, in August 1999. Vice President Al Gore and Gilbert Grosvenor, the great grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. After more than 20 launches, each carrying from two to seven satellites, and an investment of some $7 billion, Iridium auspiciously began operations on November 1, 1998, with a call between U.S. Motorola built the satellites, transforming the way satellites had historically been manufactured.
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An Iridium LLC was formed in 1991 to pursue the venture. 1 Initial system research calculated that global coverage would require a constellation of 77 satellites-hence the name Iridium-although further study after the name was announced reduced the size to 66. Iridium was conceived in late 1987 by three Motorola engineers. The FCC license required TRW to begin building the first two spacecraft by November 1997 however, the company was unable to find another major investor to support the project, and Odyssey was abandoned in December 1997. At an estimated cost of $3.2 billion, Odyssey was to start service in 1999. Odyssey, proposed by TRW, was a MEO solution with a constellation of 12 satellites orbiting 10,600 km above the Earth, equally divided into three orbital planes inclined at 55 degrees to the equator. Only Globalstar, Iridium and Odyssey were awarded licenses by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate in the U.S. Other MSC proposals-Globalstar, Ellipso, Iridium, Odyssey and others-were based on big MEO or LEO constellations. This first MSC system, ICO Global Communications (formerly known as the Inmarsat-P Affiliate Company project) was established in January 1995 as a commercial spin-off of Inmarsat however, it was not successful. Implementing this service would require a new satellite constellation in either medium Earth orbit (MEO) or low Earth orbit (LEO). The highlight was a prototype handheld satellite phone based on the Inmarsat-P communication standard. In September 1991, Inmarsat became the first international geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) operator to announce a strategy to develop a MSC system, called Project-21. Even if cellular became widespread, regions of the globe would be uncovered, regions important to industry, science and the military. Terrestrial cellular was early in its development and ubiquitous adoption by society was not certain. and European operators began planning mobile satellite communications (MSC) systems to provide voice and data connectivity around the globe, based on a vision to advance commercial and military communications in the new millennium.