When The Heavens Went On Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach

Product Information

Illuminating... For an insight into the people and culture driving the new space age, Mr Vance's book is the place to start. After the wonder of the Moon landings, space somehow contrived to become boring. These days it is exciting again Economist The frenzied race by stargazing entrepreneurs to build a new economy in space is one of the most exciting tales of our time. Ashlee Vance, with his immersive reporting and exuberant writing, has captured the ambition and idealism of the colorful characters who are not only transforming our world but our heavens. It's the next tech frontier, and Vance turns it into a thriller." —Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs and The Code Breaker The deployment of Planet’s revolutionary Doves satellites was groundbreaking. No other company in history had ever launched close to 88 satellites simultaneously before. Normally, you'd see one or two – four or five on a good day. Planet had to invent new ways to locate, control, and command their constellation of Doves as they whirled around Earth. It was like conducting an orchestra in zero gravity.

With enthusiasm and solid research, this book is an entertaining, informative look at cutting-edge technology. A momentous look at the private companies building a revolutionary new economy in space, from the New York Timesbestselling author of Elon MuskThat's Firefly's story in a nutshell. It's all about big dreams, game-changing innovation, and a determination to break the aerospace industry’s mold. Picture this: hundreds of small, inexpensive satellites fly in formation, snapping pictures of every nook and cranny of our planet on a daily basis. Sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, right? But that’s exactly what Planet Labs is achieving right now. PDF / EPUB File Name: When_the_Heavens_Went_on_Sale_-_Ashlee_Vance.pdf, When_the_Heavens_Went_on_Sale_-_Ashlee_Vance.epub Fascinating people abound in the book, to the point that sometimes they crowd out some of the technical details. In the section about Planet, for example, Vance discusses that the early Dove satellites suffered many technical problems, from overheating to a change in focus of the camera lenses, that the company did not publicly discuss but raised questions, according to one employee, about whether the whole concept of cheap, mass-manufactured imaging cubesats would work. Planet overcame those problems, but the book elides that troubleshooting process. A] fantastic new book ... I can highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in space, especially if you want to know how space startups work behind the public promises and marketing ... [ When the Heavens Went on Sale] provides real insight into these companies and the people who toil in them." — Ars Technica

NASA's space shuttle Atlantis stands atop Mobile Launch Platform-3 just hours before the liftoff of STS-135, the final mission of the 30-year space shuttle program in July 2011. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls) In When the Heavens Went on Sale, Ashlee Vance illuminates our future and unveils the next big technology story of our time: welcome to the Wild West of aerospace engineering and its unprecedented impact on our lives. Vance has had a front-row seat and singular access to this peculiar and unprecedented moment in history. When the Heavens Went on Sale travels through private company headquarters, labs, and top-secret launch locations around the world, including California, Texas, Alaska, New Zealand, Ukraine, India, and French Guiana. He chronicles it all in full color: the private jets, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations, and multimillionaires guzzling booze to dull the pain as their fortunes disappear. The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport (2018)A momentous look at the private companies driving the revolutionary new space race, from the 3-million copy, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk It surprised me that the author didn't spend much time/paper diving deeper into space-related opportunities - I think there's much more there than it was covered (incl. access to minerals/rare substances). Full of colorful people, risky investments, and teachable explosions, Vance's book is fascinating Philadelphia Inquirer One big revelation about this book and the big takeaway from this book is the space infrastructure that surrounds our planet and the coming space infrastructure that will increase in this decade and beyond. There is currently about 5000 satellites surrounding the Earth. By the end of the decade, it is predicated the amount of satellites surrounding Earth will increase to 50,000 - 100,000. That's a lot! There are couple type of satellites around surrouding Earth: Weather Satellites, Imaging satellites that take photos of the Earth, Internet satellites that shoot internet down to the ground allowing anyone to connect to the internet no matter how remote they are (like Starlink), ones that anyone to do phone call by satellites, GPS, and even more. All these type of satellites already improve our lives and we don't think about it that much. And there are even more satellites going up within the next decade. Similar to how electronics improved every few years, the electronics in satellites also improve and we will have improved satellites

Now that you’ve learned Astra’s story, it’s time to uncover how Firefly – our fourth and final company – has made history in the space industry. One of the best books ever written about NewSpace . . . An incredibly entertaining account of today's space industry . . . Well-written and thrilling . . . When the Heavens Went on Sale is a timely read that introduces readers to the exciting business of launching small satellites. The space-based economy is just getting started National Space Society This is one of the best books ever written about NewSpace. Ashlee Vance’s new book, When the Heavens Went on Sale, is an incredibly entertaining account of today’s space industry. Vance previously wrote an autobiography about Elon Musk. This time, Vance writes about launching satellites into orbit. Lots and lots of satellites. Vance doesn't re-utilize stuff read/heard from others,he did reach out to all these companies (& people) directly, so then he could relate things as a direct observer - there's definitely unique value here, thanks to that I remember enjoying Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk (although it's hard to like his subject nowadays), so I was eager to read the next volume of his space non-fiction saga. And I was not disappointed. Vance is a gifted storyteller, and once again he focuses not on science or technology but on the people behind it, while simultaneously painting a broad panorama of the current state of play in the field.In the end, the Doves didn't just fly around aimlessly. Planet used differential drag to control the satellites’ movements. Imagine solar panels acting like sails, pushing against the faint trace of atmosphere in space. This was mostly a theoretical concept until the company proved it could work. And work it did. The public will better appreciate that after reading When the Heavens Went on Sale, the new book by Ashlee Vance, who previously wrote a biography of Elon Musk (see “Review: Elon Musk”, The Space Review, May 18, 2015.) Here, SpaceX and Musk play only cameo roles. The book is instead, arguably, about the rise of a new generation of startups enabled or inspired by SpaceX’s successes. It is, though, just as much a portrait of the diverse cast of characters that created and worked at those companies.