Eccentric Orbits

Eccentric Orbits
Author :
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages : 604
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780802192820
ISBN-13 : 0802192823
Rating : 4/5 (823 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Eccentric Orbits by : John Bloom

Download or read book Eccentric Orbits written by John Bloom and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Good corporate drama . . . an enlightening narrative of how new communications infrastructures often come about.” —The Economist, “A Book of the Year 2016” In the early 1990s, Motorola developed a revolutionary satellite system called Iridium that promised to be its crowning achievement. Its constellation of 66 satellites in polar orbit 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. 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. “Deep reporting put forward with epic intentions . . . a story that soars and jumps and dives and digresses . . . [A] big, gutsy, exciting book.” —The Wall Street Journal, “A Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016” “Spellbinding . . . A tireless researcher, Bloom delivers a superlative history . . . A tour de force.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)


Eccentric Orbits Related Books

Eccentric Orbits
Language: en
Pages: 604
Authors: John Bloom
Categories: Technology & Engineering
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-06-07 - Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

GET EBOOK

“Good corporate drama . . . an enlightening narrative of how new communications infrastructures often come about.” —The Economist, “A Book of the Year 2
Frozen Orbit
Language: en
Pages: 399
Authors: Patrick Chiles
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-01-07 - Publisher: Baen Books

GET EBOOK

THE BEGINNING OF LIFE AWAITS AT THE END OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. A FROZEN ANSWER AT THE EDGE OF PLANETARY SPACE Set to embark on NASA’s first expedition to the ou
Frontier
Language: en
Pages: 431
Authors: Patrick Chiles
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-06-01 - Publisher: Baen Books

GET EBOOK

Marshall Hunter only wanted to fly: the faster, the higher, the better. But a life of rescuing wayward spacefarers and derelict satellites in the cislunar cruis
The True Doctrine of Orbits
Language: en
Pages: 226
Authors: H. G. Rush
Categories: Orbits
Type: BOOK - Published: 1887 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

The Copernican Revolution
Language: en
Pages: 330
Authors: Thomas S. Kuhn
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 1957 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

GET EBOOK

An account of the Copernican Revolution, focusing on the significance of the plurality of the revolution which encompassed not only mathematical astronomy, but