About this item
A momentous look at the private companies driving a revolutionary new economy in space, from the New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk. With the launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2008, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket that could reach orbit. And that milestone carried major implications: Silicon Valley, not NASA or nation states, was suddenly cemented as the epicenter of the new Space Age. Start-ups and the wealthy investors behind them began to realize that the universe - ungoverned and infinite - was open for business. Welcome to the Wild West of aerospace engineering.. When the Heavens Went on Sale tells the remarkable, unfolding story of this frenzied intergalactic land grab. Through his trademark immersive reporting, Ashlee Vance follows four pioneering companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs, and Rocket Lab - as they build new space systems and attempt to launch rockets and satellites into orbit by the thousands.
About the Author
Ashlee Vance is an award winning feature writer for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Vance is also the host of the "Hello World" TV show. Previously, he worked for The New York Times and The Register. Vance was born in South Africa, grew up in Texas and attended Pomona College. He has spent more than a decade covering the technology industry from San Francisco and is a noted Silicon Valley historian.
