Chapter 127 Iridium Launch

During the New Year's holiday, Yuri and the others came forward to receive these uninvited guests of Walesa. Although Walesa is now well-known all over the world, he can only rely on a small number of patrons to continue to fight against the Communist regime in Poland. Walesa knew from the media in the Soviet Union that the workers in the Soviet Union were also making trouble. He felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he hoped that someone could provide a large amount of funds for him to hold another grand national event. strike activity. As long as the Soviet Union does not intervene, the Polish government is definitely not the opponent of Solidarity.

Sergesha decided to support Walesa's actions after careful consideration, so that he would have an excuse to continue importing a large amount of food from the United States and Canada, and he could also use the situation in Poland to draw Gorbachev's energy and let him Exhausted by the intensified strikes at home and in Poland, he could not get rid of the support of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation to the Soviet Union. If this could be achieved, then no matter how hard Ligachev tried, he would never dare to touch Sergeysha.

After hearing Yuri's supportive reply, Wawensa couldn't believe his ears. He held Yuri and Ivankov's hands tightly, thank you very much. Yuri gave Wałęsa a money order worth 10 million rubles from the Soviet Foreign Trade Bank. With this money, Wałęsa could return to Poland to carry out the preparatory work for the strike.

Not long after Lech Walesa was sent away, Seryozha's vacation ended. But Seryozha still didn't plan to go back to Moscow. He wanted to go around the satellite countries of the Soviet Union to see if there were any Eastern European companies worth investing in like Skoda Automobile. By the way, it is also to avoid domestic disputes.

Tonya and Karim will stay and continue to accompany Seryozha on inspections in Eastern European countries, while Eva has to return to the United States, because there is a major matter that the whole Wall Street is concerned about waiting for her to go back to deal with, that is, iridium Star's first experimental satellite is about to be launched into space.

Last year, Iridium's first test satellite was originally planned to be launched before the end of the year, but it was later delayed due to problems with the development progress. Therefore, matters related to the launch were arranged for the year after the year, which is the first Saturday after the Orthodox Christmas.

Eva traveled from Czechoslovakia to Austria, and her special plane had been waiting at the airport in Vienna for many days. Just before Eva got on the plane, Stephenson from AT&T called to tell Eva the great news.

"Eva, if this satellite launch is successful and everything goes well, you will use the satellite phone to talk to President Reagan in the White House!" Stephenson said excitedly on the phone.

"Why didn't I know about this?" Eva was a little surprised, but still very happy. If you talk to the President of the United States using a satellite phone, it will undoubtedly be of great help to the commercial promotion of Iridium.

"I arranged this for you. You know the commercial value of this. It is very helpful to both Iridium and AT&T." Stephenson said triumphantly.

"Okay, let's talk about it when I get back! I hope it goes well," Eva hung up the phone after finishing speaking, and boarded her private business jet.

Eva's plane needs to fly to Paris, then fill up with jet fuel, cross the Atlantic, and then land in New York. Eva will meet Stephenson and other Iridium board members in New York before heading to Space City Houston. Just after Eva landed in New York, he got a call from his subordinate. His subordinates told him on the phone that everything was ready in Houston, and that the director and deputy director of NASA would attend the launch event.

Eva was not surprised at all. He knew very well how much NASA attached importance to this business. You must know that Eva will launch a total of 77 satellites. This business is absolutely unique in the history of commercial spaceflight. If this launch goes well, the future contract will bring huge returns to NASA, because Eva intends to, after the verification satellite passes,

Send all the satellites into space within one year.

Eva spent a full day and night on the plane, during which time he flew from artistic Vienna to Houston, a city in the Texas desert. When leaving the plane, Eva felt tired, but more excited. As soon as he stepped out of the cabin, he was blocked by media reporters waiting outside, and the flashing lights lit up the tarmac in the night.

"Ms. Eva, how sure is Iridium of this launch..."

"If it fails, will Iridium continue to launch test satellites..."

...

Eva didn't respond too much. She left the airport by car under the protection of bodyguards and went to the hotel to rest.

At nine o'clock the next morning, Eva and the shareholders of Iridium arrived at Space Center Houston early in the morning. The launch time was set at nine o'clock in the morning. Today's weather is fine and sunny. Eva chatted with Stephenson and others, and those shareholders who usually stayed in Japan also came to Eva to communicate cordially at this moment. Everyone is waiting for news of Iridium's success.

As time passed slowly, everyone's mood gradually became tense. At this moment, Stephenson suddenly said to Eva: "Eva, before the market closed yesterday afternoon, I bought most of my retirement funds in AT&T stock. AT&T retired."

"Mr. Stephenson, why are you..." Eva felt that the news was too sudden, and she suddenly thought of what to do if Stephenson and other successors were unreliable again.

"You can rest assured that AT&T will continue to cooperate with Iridium, because I have recommended you to the board of directors as the next CEO of AT&T, representatives of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have agreed, plus yourself I don't think anyone can object to the stocks in your hand!" Stephenson said with full expectation.

Eva wanted to say something more to stay, but Stephenson turned and left.

"The last 30 minutes of preparation, everyone left the scene..."

"Enter the last ten minutes to prepare..."

"Ten seconds countdown..."

"ten!"

"Nine!"

...

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

...

"ignition!"

Under the watchful eyes of the audience, the launch vehicle carried Iridium's dream into space.

An hour later, Houston reported that the satellite had successfully entered orbit and everything was working normally. Iridium directors and shareholders excitedly popped champagne to celebrate. Then, under the watchful eyes of the audience, Eva dialed the White House with a satellite phone produced by Sony Corporation of Japan.

"Ma'am, you have done a great thing, congratulations!" President Reagan said enthusiastically on the other end of the phone.