A big country of aerospace with black technology

Although Zhang Xingyang gave a lot of advice to the Beidou navigation system, as the acting director of the Rocket Research Institute, the development of the satellite is not under his control.

Moreover, the domestic technical strength in this area is actually not weak, and it can be regarded as a number in the international arena.

It's just that he may not see the general direction as clearly as Zhang Xingyang.

After all, people at this time have not experienced a series of events in later generations, and have no concept of these.

In addition to the launch mission of the domestic Beidou system, there is another possible launch mission that will fall on the rocket research institute recently.

That is to launch the Iridium satellite designed and manufactured by Motorola.

As the first-generation satellite mobile communication constellation system, Iridium's biggest technical feature is to realize global communication through satellite-to-satellite relay.

It is equivalent to establishing a communication network in the sky in this era when cellular mobile phone systems have not yet been fully rolled out.

Of course, speaking of Iridium, in addition to its seemingly tall technical features, I have to mention its final tragic fate.

Due to the huge research and development costs and system construction costs, Iridium had to bear a very heavy debt burden.

You must know that for these 77 satellites, Iridium has spent more than five billion U.S. dollars, and the annual maintenance cost of the entire system alone is hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

By the end of the 1990s, the interest on these debts was as high as more than 40 million U.S. dollars per month.

In the end, Iridium had to file for bankruptcy protection on August 13, 1999.

It was not until 2001 that it received capital injection from the Eagle Sauce Army before it came back to life.

There are many reasons for Iridium's bankruptcy, including technical and market issues, including Iridium's own internal management problems.

But you can hardly say that he is not an epoch-making change in the history of human communication. Before him, all communication methods were basically carried out through the ground communication network, but he historically moved the communication network to the sky, allowing people to communicate regardless of the geographical environment. .

This time, we have contacted and negotiated with Iridium, and the possible launch mission is two backup satellites of Iridium.

Although, Iridium claims that only 77 satellites are needed to cover the whole world and provide a global communication network.

But in fact, considering the redundancy of the system design, several backup satellites were prepared for it.

"Our calculation shows that the total quotation for the satellite launch rocket manufacturing cost and launch cost is 98.23 million U.S. dollars."

Liang Yi, who accompanied the business meeting, stated our quotation for the launch of these two satellites.

On average, the launch price for each Iridium spare satellite is $49 million.

For Iridium, this quotation is relatively cheap compared to some satellite launch companies in China or Western Europe.

After all, at this time, the domestic quotation per kilogram of launch weight is basically between 60,000 and 80,000.

For the same weight, other companies' quotations are basically around 120,000.

The ultra-high cost performance is also the reason why Iridium first considers domestic rocket launches.

"No problem, after the contract is signed, the money will be credited to your account within a week."

The person in charge of the negotiation on the opposite side was the executive of Iridium Star Company who spoke.

At this time, Iridium was still very wealthy, holding a large investment from Eagle Sauce Wall Street, and there was no shortage of money at all.

Of course, another reason is to follow the planned timetable announced when they offered shares and issued bonds.

They don't have so much time to waste, they can only exchange money for time.

However, even in the case of crazy money, Iridium still has many defects and technical problems that cannot be solved.

This is also an important reason why after Iridium was officially launched on the market, the market response was not as good as expected.

"Zhang, are you interested in becoming the first batch of users of Iridium Communications?"

During the chat after the official meeting, Prince Toller, the former head of Iridium, enthusiastically recommended his company's products to Zhang Xingyang.

Of course, Zhang Xingyang, who knew how bad Iridium's first-generation products were, was not interested, but seeing that the other party had just sent him nearly 100 million US dollars, he didn't directly taunt him.

Rather, it is more euphemistic:

"I am quite optimistic about the development prospects of the satellite communication network, but for me there is no place where satellite communication can be used."

Although Zhang Xingyang's words were relatively tactful, Prince Toller was also not an idiot.

It is impossible for an idiot to become an executive of Iridium, and Prince Toler also heard that Zhang Xingyang has no interest in Iridium's satellite communication service.

So he smiled, turned and left.

Zhang Xingyang looked at the business delegation of the Iridium Company who left in high spirits, and said to Liang Yi beside him with some emotion:

"Uncle Liang, believe it or not, Iridium Star Corporation will be unable to sustain itself in three years and will file for bankruptcy."

Although Liang Yi believed in Zhang Xingyang's various judgments on weekdays, after all, he did not make any mistakes in such a major event.

But I don't really believe that such a big company will suddenly go bankrupt within three years.

After all, Iridium at this time can be regarded as a hot technology company in the world.

In the field of communication technology, it has many technical patents.

No matter how you look at it, such a company is unlikely to go bankrupt within three years.

So he shook his head and said:

"I don't believe it. Iridium is still rich, so it's unlikely that it will go bankrupt within three years, right?"

Zhang Xingyang was not particularly surprised when he heard the words. After all, although Liang Yi is a professional financial person, he is not particularly clear about some internal conditions of Iridium Company.

Because these things were completely covered up by Iridium.

Only after Iridium officially opened satellite communication services next year will the poor income let everyone discover the unhealthy financial status of Iridium.

"The situation of Iridium is not as good as you think, Uncle Liang. Although their technical concept is very advanced, there are still many problems in technical details."

Zhang Xingyang didn't particularly care about the matter of revealing the background of Iridium Star.

"Although Iridium claims to be able to communicate anywhere in the world, its technology is not particularly mature."

"When the user really needs to use it, if there is a cover on the top of the head, then it cannot be connected to the Iridium above the head normally, so every time it is used, it needs to go outside to use it, which is very uncomfortable for some business people. friendly."

"Moreover, the MF-TDMA (Multi-Frequency Time Division Multiple Access) communication system adopted by Iridium has poor voice quality, and the initial call drop rate is extremely high."

"These shortcomings mean that it is not a mature product, but a hastily produced experimental product, and the market will not buy it."

Zhang Xingyang said with some emotion.

These once proud satellites, after the bankruptcy of Iridium, can only think of the glory of the original satellite communication system when astronomy enthusiasts and photographers watch the iridium flash.

PS: The first-generation "Iridium" has three extremely bright aluminum antennas, and its orbit is relatively low, so they can produce much higher reflection intensity than ordinary satellites or space stations, and the periodicity of operation also makes it The observation direction and time can be predicted, which is a favorite activity for astronomy enthusiasts and photographers.

However, since the new generation of Iridium has adopted new technology and lost its flash, this activity can no longer be carried out.

The last Iridium star 97, which can observe the iridium flash, fell in December 19th.