Good shoutout to the reference of the iridium satellites, I had forgotten those postings. It always struck me as odd to the point of nonsensical that the project was abandoned after substantive investment was already made, many satellites already launched and working.. so likely these were either repurposed after, or the iridium phones was always a secondary fake purpose to whatever the hidden primary function of these was and is.

Perhaps very relevant now things like starlink are around.