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

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Space.com: Do you have a favorite story in the book highlighting international space outside of the United States?

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. 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.

When the Heavens Went on Sale

Space.com: Many companies are now targeting the moon for commercial activity. Can you talk about which of the four companies you featured in your book are going there, and how? Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds. 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. The book provides real insight into these companies and the people who toil in them. 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 spent years researching this book including months spent interviewing key players at these four companies (and others), and traveling around the globe to witness launches, successes, and failures. His writing is engaging and accessible, though I thought he relied on direct quotations from some of his more colorful subjects a bit too much.

An] energetic account...[Vance] ably captures 'the spectacular madness of it all.' With enthusiasm and solid research, this book is an entertaining, informative look at cutting-edge technology Kirkus Space.com: Many readers will remember you from your best-selling biography " Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future " (Ecco, 2017), about Elon Musk. If you were to do an update to the book today, what sort of information would you emphasize or want to include? For readers interested in Musk or technology and innovation. This book will be an excellent addition to science or biography collections." — Library Journal Firefly Aerospace philosophy - Focus on the very next thing and don't plan too far ahead. One of the founders of Firefly was ex-SpaceX and he learned from Elon Musk to focus on finishing the very next thing and not to plan to far in the future. Cause then you spend your time just making plans and nothing else and also you don't focus on the here and now. Focusing on the very next thing is what will get you to your end goal. destination.I found this to be more of a cheerleading ramble than a serious look into the “Race for Space” ownership that is currently happening. I appreciate that several private companies are working hard to master space travel, but what does that mean to the vast majority of the population of the Earth? Not much. I know NASA scientists and the corporations that worked with them have paved the way to our modern age (cell phones and the computers that are an integral part of them, and so much, much more) but I get the feeling that only a select few of these pioneers will garner profits from this race.