How Iridium and Globalstar changed the world: the first constellations (Scott Manley)

In this video

Scott Manley is one of the most followed space-technology explainers on YouTube. This 18 minute 17 second video, published on 22 December 2023 (about 165,000 views), tells how, "three decades before Starlink", several satellite constellations were developed to provide connectivity anywhere on the planet; Iridium and Globalstar were the ones that launched, and neither recovered its investment before entering bankruptcy. The description asks how they survived. The treatment is technical and historical, with the orbital design choices (Iridium's cross-linked polar planes versus Globalstar's bent-pipe inclined orbits) explained properly.

Why it matters for a business buyer

Every argument you will hear about Starlink, OneWeb or Amazon Leo was first made about Iridium in 1998. The video gives the context that makes today's market legible:

• Capital cost versus demand: Iridium spent about $5 billion and filed for bankruptcy in 1999 within a year of service; the assets were bought for a fraction and the company became profitable serving governments, ships and aircraft. OneWeb's 2020 bankruptcy and rescue followed the same pattern.
• Architecture: Iridium's inter-satellite links gave it coverage without a ground station on every continent; Starlink adopted lasers for the same reason a generation later. Globalstar's bent-pipe design tied coverage to gateways, the compromise OneWeb also chose.
• Longevity: the original Iridium satellites flew for 20 years; the NEXT generation (66 satellites, launched 2017 to 2019) now carries Iridium Certus, and Globalstar's network powers Apple's satellite SOS on the iPhone.

For a procurement team this is the case for not betting a critical service on one constellation's finances, and the reason our directory keeps Iridium providers next to the LEO broadband providers.

Watch this if

You are new to the sector, you are writing a LEO business case, or you want to understand why analysts scrutinise launch cost and subscriber numbers for Amazon Leo (see our September 2026 analysis). For the product side of Iridium today, see the Iridium Certus entry.

Go further

Definitions: Iridium, Globalstar, satellite constellation, New Space. Directories: Iridium providers, LEO providers.