 The initial commercial failure of Iridium had a damping effect on other proposed commercial satellite constellation projects, including Teledesic.Other schemes (Orbcomm, ICO Global Communications, and Globalstar) followed Iridium into bankruptcy protection, while a number of other proposed schemes were never constructed.In August 2000, Motorola announced that the Iridium satellites would have to be deorbited; however, they remained in orbit and operational.