Elon Musk’s biographer Ashlee Vance was interviewed this week by Albion Partner Doug Wells on his KPCW radio program Mountain Money on the subject of Vance’s new book “When the Heavens Went on Sale”
Ashlee Vance is an American business columnist and author, best known for his biography of Elon Musk, titled “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” which was released in 2015.
The biography traces Musk’s journey from his difficult upbringing in South Africa to his ascent to the pinnacle of the global business world. The book provides an outline of the experiences that have made Musk the man he is today, and how he has always dreamed big.
Vance’s new book called “When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach” tells the remarkable, unfolding story of a frenzied low Earth orbit “land grab.”
Through his trademark immersive reporting, 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.
While the public fixated on the space tourism being driven by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, these new 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—and setting it up as the next playing field for humankind’s technological evolution.