Iridium

The Iridium constellation of about 70 communications satellites was originally started in the mid-1990s by another company. It was originally intended to have more than 200 satellites in orbit handling voice and data communications worldwide, mostly for cellular phones. But the bubble burst for the business and Iridium was sold for pennies on the dollar. Boeing Service Company worked to improve the lifespan of the satellites, doubling their service time and helped to make the network profitable in 2006 by finding U.S. Department of Defense customers to use the satellites for streaming information between ground stations.