Today’s Satellite Boom Was Foretold in Busts of Yesteryear
Musk and Bezos are betting that their space ventures won’t replay Motorola’s Iridium flop three decades ago.
Engineers at work on Motorola’s 66-satellite Iridium network.
Source: Iridium
This story is the first in a series we’re calling Déjà Vu, highlighting how events making headlines today have played out differently in the past—and what that may tell us about the future.
If the idea of tech impresarios sending fleets of satellites into space to revolutionize communications by making high-speed connections available just about everywhere sounds familiar, it should. That’s certainly the news of today, with Elon Musk’s Starlink already girdling the globe with more than 4,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit and rivals including Amazon.com Inc.’s 3,236-satellite Project Kuiper—the brainchild of founder Jeff Bezos—not far behind.