 In December 2000, the US government stepped in to save Iridium by providing $72 million in exchange for a two-year contract and approving the fire-sale of the company from US bankruptcy court for $25 million, in March 2001.This erased over $4 billion in debt.Iridium service was restarted in 2001 by the newly founded Iridium Satellite LLC, which was owned by a group of private investors.