I agree with you that it is a shame that the satellites will be destroyed. I also agree that Iridium's concept was remarkable. Most of the people who have posted an opinion on Iridium on SI lately are long Globalstar, whose stock price isn't "behaving well" and hope that the destruction of Iridium will help their investments, so they aren't exactly unbiased. Here is a link to what is probably the most useful site on the Internet about satellites, the guy is an engineer, doesn't invest in stocks, and has no financial bias:
ee.surrey.ac.uk
However, my guesstimate, based on documents filed in the bankruptcy proceeding, is that the cost of operating the constellation is probably in the range of $4 million a month. That's just based on what the judge approved - since Motorola is operating the constellation, which it built, and is "lending" the money to Iridium, the only party that knows what it really costs is Motorola, - someone posted earlier that they offered to operate it for McCaw for $8 million a month, and there is obviously some profit built into that price.
I am surprised that the satellites won't be auctioned - but there is still time, as the decommissioning will take months. If the creditors protest the destruction, maybe there will be an auction, who knows? |
