When hurricanes devastated Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands recently, there was no way for people there to communicate with relatives in the US or elsewhere except with an Iridium satellite phone.
Here are some videos that tell the amazing story of how the Iridium network came to be, how it was almost destroyed as soon as it was completed, and how it was saved.
To date, 40 of the new "Iridium NEXT" satellites have been launched, with another 10 scheduled for the end of this month.
