When the Heavens Went on Sale

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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 this illuminating narrative, Ashlee Vance 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 realized that the universe was open for business. 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 is captivated by space tourism led by figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, these scrappy companies aim to make launches fast and affordable, opening Earth's lower orbit for business. Vance offers a front-row seat to this unprecedented moment in history, chronicling top-secret launch locations, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, espionage investigations, and multimillionaires coping with their fortunes vanishing. Through immersive reporting, the narrative reveals the spectacular chaos of the new space business and the ambitious minds of Silicon Valley pursuing their vision among the stars, highlighting technology’s most pressing and controversial revolution.