Although Zhang Xingyang has provided many opinions on the Beidou Navigation System, as the acting director of the Rocket Research Institute, the development of satellites is not under his control.
Moreover, the domestic technical strength in this area is actually not weak, and it can also be regarded as outstanding internationally.
It's just that he may not be able to 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 idea of them.
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 achieve global communications through relays between satellites.
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 in various places.
Of course, when talking about Iridium, in addition to its seemingly superior technical features, we also have to mention its final tragic fate.
Due to the huge R&D expenses and system construction expenses, Iridium has to bear a very heavy debt burden.
You must know that Iridium spent more than five billion U.S. dollars on these 77 satellites, and the maintenance cost of the entire system alone costs hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars every year.
By the late 1990s, Iridium's monthly interest on these debts alone was as high as more than $40 million.
In the end, Iridium had to file for bankruptcy protection on August 13, 1999.
It wasn't until 2001 that it came back to life after receiving a capital injection from the Yingjiang military.
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 it is not an epoch-making change in the history of human communication. Before him, all communication methods were basically carried out through terrestrial communication networks, and he historically moved the communication network to the sky, allowing people to communicate regardless of geographical environment. .
This time, we are in contact and discussing with Iridium. The possible launch missions we will take over are two backup satellites for Iridium.
Although, Iridium claims that it only needs 77 satellites to cover the world and provide a global communication network.
But in fact, considering the redundancy issue of the system design, several backup satellites were prepared for it.
"Our calculation shows that the total quote for the rocket manufacturing cost and launch cost for this satellite launch is US$98.23 million."
Liang Yi, who accompanied the business meeting, stated our launch quotation for these two satellites.
On average, the launch price of each Iridium backup satellite is US$49 million.
For Iridium, this price is relatively cheap compared to some satellite launch companies in China or Western Europe.
After all, the domestic quotations per kilogram of launch weight at this time are 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 Corporation.
At this time, Iridium was still very wealthy. With a large amount of investment from Wall Street, there was no shortage of money at all.
Of course, another reason is to follow the planned schedule announced when they issue IPOs and bonds.
They don't have so much time to waste, so they can only spend money in exchange for time.
However, even with the crazy spending money, Iridium still has many defects and technical problems that have not been solved.
This is also an important reason why the market response after Iridium was officially launched on the market was not as good as expected.
"Zhang, are you interested in becoming the first users of Iridium Communications?"
During the chat after the formal meeting, Prince Toler, the former head of Iridium, enthusiastically recommended his company's products to Zhang Xingyang.
Of course, Zhang Xingyang, who knew the pitfalls of Iridium's first-generation product, was not interested, but considering that the other party had just given him nearly 100 million U.S. dollars, he did not directly mock it.
Rather, it is more euphemistic:
"I am quite optimistic about the development prospects of satellite communication networks, but for me there is currently no place where satellite communications can be used."
Although Zhang Xingyang's words were relatively tactful, Prince Toler was not an idiot either.
It is impossible for an idiot to become an executive of Iridium. Prince Toller also heard that Zhang Xingyang had no interest in Iridium's satellite communication services.
So he smiled, turned around and left.
Zhang Xingyang looked at the Iridium business delegation leaving in high spirits, and said with some emotion to Liang Yi beside him:
"Uncle Liang, believe it or not, Iridium will be unable to sustain itself in three years and will file for bankruptcy."
Although Liang Yi usually trusts Zhang Xingyang's various judgments, after all, he has not made any mistakes in such major matters.
But I don't particularly believe that such a large company will suddenly go bankrupt within three years.
After all, at this time, Iridium is a very popular technology company in the world.
It has many technical patents in the field of communication technology.
No matter how you look at it, it is unlikely that such a company will go bankrupt within three years.
So he shook his head and said:
"I don't believe it. Iridium is still quite wealthy. It's unlikely to go bankrupt within three years, right?"
Zhang Xingyang was not particularly surprised when he heard this. After all, although Liang Yi was a professional financial person, he was not particularly clear about some of the internal conditions of Iridium.
Because these things were completely covered up by Iridium.
Only after Iridium officially launches satellite communication services next year will the poor revenue make everyone discover the unhealthy financial status within Iridium.
"The situation of Iridium is not as good as you think, Uncle Liang. Although their technical concepts are very advanced, there are still many problems in the technical details."
Zhang Xingyang didn't have any particular concerns about exposing Iridium Star's background.
"Although Iridium claims to be able to communicate anywhere in the world, its technology is not yet particularly mature."
"When users really need to use it, if there is a cover above their heads, they will not be able to connect to the Iridium satellite above their heads normally, so they need to go outside every time they use it, which is very uncomfortable for some business people. friendly."
"Furthermore, the voice quality of the MF-TDMA (Multi-frequency Time Division Multiple Access) communication system used by Iridium is poor, 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 be remembered by astronomy enthusiasts and photography enthusiasts about the glory of the original satellite communication system when they watch the Iridium flash.
PS: The first-generation "Iridium" satellite has three extremely bright aluminum antennas, and its orbit is relatively low, so they can produce much higher reflective intensity than ordinary satellites or space stations, and the periodicity of its operation also makes it The observation direction and time can be predicted, which is an observation activity that both astronomy enthusiasts and photography enthusiasts prefer.
However, since the new generation of Iridium satellites adopted new technologies and lost their flash, this activity has been no longer possible.
The last Iridium satellite that could observe iridium flashes, No. 97, fell in December 2019.
