A momentous look at the private companies building a revolutionary new
economy in space, from the New York Times bestselling author of Elon
Musk
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.
With the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket in 2008, Silicon Valley
began to realize that the universe itself was open for business. Now,
Vance tells the remarkable, unfolding story of this frenzied
intergalactic land grab by following 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.
With the public fixated on the space tourism being driven by the likes
of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, these new, scrappy
companies arrived with a different set of goals: to make rocket and
satellite launches fast and cheap, thereby opening Earth's lower orbit
for business. Vance has had a front-row seat and singular access to this
peculiar and unprecedented moment in history, and he chronicles it all
in full color: the top-secret launch locations, communes, gun-toting
bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations, and multimillionaires
guzzling booze to dull the pain as their fortunes disappear.
Through immersive and intimate reporting, When the Heavens Went on
Sale reveals the spectacular chaos of the new business of space, and
what happens when the idealistic, ambitious minds of Silicon Valley turn
their unbridled vision toward the limitless expanse of the stars. This
is the tale of technology's most pressing and controversial revolution,
as told through fascinating characters chasing unimaginable stakes in
the race to space.
