[Yo-Yo]

for anyone who cares, there’s a great book, “Eccentric Orbits”, about the rise, near demise, and miraculous resurrection of the original Iridium constellation

Nothing miraculous about it. The R&D and initial launches were made using venture capital, then Iridium declared bankrupcy and wiped out all of their debt.

A new company bought up the assets for pennies on the dollar, and secured government contracts to provide sat phone service to the military during Gulf War II.

[Moonman62]

The current CEO of Iridium has said they wouldn’t have been able to complete this new constellation without the lower launch costs of SpaceX.

[catnipman]

“Nothing miraculous about it.”

read the book. all of what you listed came extremely close to not happening ...