Teledesic

Teledesic was a company founded in the 1990s to build a commercial broadband satellite internet constellation.

[2] The commercial failure of the similar Iridium and Globalstar ventures (composed of 66 and 48 operational satellites respectively) and other systems, along with bankruptcy protection filings, were primary factors in halting the project, and Teledesic officially suspended its satellite construction work on 1 October 2002.

[5][6] The satellites were three-axis stabilized with a faceted antenna on the bottom and a large articulated solar panel on top.

Describing Teledesic as absurd, Howard Anderson of the Yankee Group said that it was "a third-world solution at a first-world price.

Larry Gessini of the International Communications Association was amazed by the proposal to launch 840 satellites.

[4] A demonstration satellite for the Teledesic constellation, originally labeled Broadband Advanced Technologies Satellite (BATSAT),[7] and later renamed Teledesic 1 or just T1 (COSPAR ID 1998-012B), was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Pegasus-XL launch vehicle on 26 February 1998 at 07:07:00 UTC.