AshleeVance

Books by Ashlee Vance

When the Heavens Went On Sale

The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach

Ecco Books 2023

• p002 SpaceX Omelek island, Kwajalein 2005
• p008 Flight 3 August 2008 orbit insertion fail
• p009 Flight 4 in 8 weeks, C-17 transport, air pressure crush and fix
• p010 September 28 to orbit, Falcon 1, 1000 pounds
• p013 2000 Falcon 9, 2 then 4 astronauts to ISS
• p014 1960s to 2020 2500 earth satellites, doubled by 2022, expected 50K to 100K by 2033
• p015 China Russia ... US about 3/4 of 100 satellite launches per year

• p025 Robbie Schingler 2017 Feb 15. 88 Planet Labs Doves + 16 other small satellites on Indian PSLV

• p027 Mangalyaan on 2000 rupee banknote

• p028 Satish Dhawan Space Centre

• p029 Shingler prayed at temple

• p031 3 "Canaries" turn on magnetorquers, orient towars sun, turn on solar panels, found 2 errors, uploaded corrections

• p035 Office of Strategic Influence Pete Worden Space and Missile Systems Center Los Angeles, team of 50, write interesting papers

• p039 After wrecking one rocket and then another and then another, !SpaceX began to implement some of the things Worden and others had suggested.

• p043 On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones "...Cones" phrase used by WW2 army air corps, said Worden's father.

• p045 NRO in L.A. SDI Abrahamson

• p046 1988 National Review article

• p047 Clementine 1994 Delta Clipper

• p049 "In case of war, break this pane of glass for the crazy person"

• p051 mentions Creon Levit -> interesting talk, deorbit with night-side retrograde liquid CO2 release -> solid crystals -> collision, then dissipate day side

• p053 conflict with Alabama senator Richard Shelby and cronies (pork barrel pig sez Worden) and cronies

• p054 Dangerous Sports Club Alan Weston

• p055 Lunar Micro Lander $40M ballooned into $280M LADEE

• p057 Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite LCROSS 2009

  • "neutron emissions that are consistent with hydrogen-rich deposits covered by desiccated regolith"

  • https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.281.5382.1496

• p058 Leased 40 acres / 40 years to Google for $148M

• p059 Hired Chris Kemp 2006, Astra in 2016

• p061 Kemp lambasted by Ross Perot for halving $180M spend

• p062 2008 Singularity University

• p064 foreigners on sacred ground

  • Planet Labs Will Marshall England, Chris Boshuizen Australia

• p065 Kemp detained for taking NASA laptop to Austrian space conference
• p068 Worden at Ames 2006 to 2015 retirement
• p069 Machiavelli: "The reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in those who would profit by the new order."

• p071 Marshall, Schingler, and Jessy Kate (Cowan-Sharp) Shingler 21677 Rainbow Drive Cupertino pic

• p074 unusual ads on Craigslist, communal meals, large library

• p077 two day hike from mansion to Waddell Beach, hitch ride home with Brin and Page

• p080 Will Marshall tapes, audio life log

• p083 Telescope unaffordable, built one, astronomer Patrick Moore provided the $1600 lens

• p083 U Leicester, friend Kevin Parkin "He cared. He took the time to rig my room to explode. How can you not find that endearing?"

• p085 Marshall Internships at NASA, met Chris Kemp, Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development

• p085 2000-4, PhD physics at Oxford under Roger Penrose

• p087 Lego Satellite Mindstorm NXT kits, Make Magazine cover

• p089 Pete Klupar consumer electronics advancing faster than NASA

• p089 PhoneSat at Ames, Phonesat.org, Balls Experimental Rocket Launch at Black Rock Desert. Tripoli amateur high power rocketry

• p096 April 2013 Dove small satellite by Cosmogia renamed Planet Labs Planet.com

• p102 $2M check from Steve Jurvetson early 2011

• p103 First Dove 3U cubesat, cost less than $1M to produce, first working prototypes mid 2012
• p105 first two Doves launched April 2013, raised $13M more, launched 28 in 2014 from ISS cargo rocket, 2015 raised $170M
• p106 early problems with heating, weak radios, lens focus

• p107 Mike Safyan negotiates for launches, i.e. Rocket Lab N.Z.

• p108 Chester Gillmore manufacturing

• p110 3 meter resolution for Doves, 0.5 meter for 2 dozen refrigerator-size Terra Bella SkySats

• p112 Decker Eveleth, Chinese inflatable ICBM silo covers, "bouncy houses of death"

• p122 Orbital Insight analyzes images: crop yields. Christmas shoppers in parking lots. Oil storage container levels.

• p124 Planetlab images show India bombs miss terrorist site. India reneges on future launches.

• p126 Russian crude to Venezuela in violation of US sanctions
• p130 5000 to 50000 satellites in a few years

• p137 Nov 2018 Rocket Lab New Zealand US headquarters

  • Rocket Lab Electron

  • 300 kg to LEO, 200 kg to SSO, 3 failures, 35 successful launches

  • p147 Peter Beck Invercargill b.1980, father Russell Beck Southland Museum and Art Gallery closed for earthquake risk

• p150 Peter's childhood around tools, unacceptable to not complete a project

• p153 worked at E. Hayes & Sons Hardware store

  • so did Burt Munro "World's Fastest Indian", motorcycle displayed at the store

• p155 2.5 hours (204 km) to appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel in Dunedin

• p156 tool heaven, finished four-year apprenticeship in less than three years
• p157 started building jet engines, then rockets
• p159 "Number 8 wire" 0.16in diameter NZ version of duct tape, Beck says "aim higher"

• p161 home in Kaikorai Valley

• p162 Rocket Propulsion Elements by Sutton ... rocket powered bicycle

• p163 5'10" Peter Beck 140 lb ... Dunedin Southern Festival of Speed

• p165 Friday Night Challenge, future wife Kerryn Morris

• p166 2002 Kerryn new job at Schlumberger in New Plymouth (north island), Beck follows, works for yacht company with stupid boss

• p169 2004 moves to Industrial Research Ltd. in Auckland

  • tested carbon fiber panels
• p171 worked two jobs, then rocket projects until 3am

• p173 Norton Sales space/technical surplus, sales until 2017, now movie prop rental

• p173 major aerospace firms kick him out, Edwards gatehouse guard nearly arrests him
• p174 visits startups in Mojave, welcoming, building same things, but with M$ backing
• p174 visits KSC tourist stuff, then JPL ... depressing bureaucracy and malaise
• p177 back home in Auckland, Beck conceives Rocket Labs

• p179 "Mark Rocket" (Stevens) invests $300K for 50% share

• p181 IRL provides materials, advice, workspace

• p182 Shaun O'Donnell avionics

• p183 Nikhil Raghu

• p189 Ātea-1 launched 30 Nov 2009 to 100 km, 6 m by 15 cm by 60 kg

• p190 Great Mercury Island Michael Fay

Edit conflict - other version:

• p195 "DARPA, the batshit crazy arm of the Defense Department" impressed by Beck's advances, Instant Eyes

• p196 Operationally Responsive Space Office Viscous Liquid Monopropellant (VLM)

• p198 Mark Rocket abjures !DoD money, bails out

Edit conflict - your version:

• p195 "DARPA, the batshit crazy arm of the Defense Department" impressed by Beck's advances, Instant Eyes

• p196 Operationally Responsive Space Office Viscous Liquid Monopropellant (VLM)

• p198 Mark Rocket abjures DOD money, bails out

• p199 new hire Samuel Houghton Instant Eyes project leader, 1 year to prototypes

• p202 November 2012 VLM test launch on Great Mercury Island, visiting SDI director Alan Weston impressed, who impresses Sand Hill Road investors

• p205 October 2013 Silicon Valley fundraising, millions of dollars from Khosla Ventures

• p208 official new headquarters Los Angeles, cosmetic move, "I'm as patriotic a Kiwi as you'll ever find, but goddammit, America gets shit done". After signing with Khosla, bought American flag at a supermarket
• p209 carbon fiber frame (not aluminum) like NZ racing sailboats
• p210 battery-powered electric turbopump, 3D printed hardware
• p211 vacuum chamber converted from industrial stainless-steel meat grinder
• p213 interviews hundreds, assigns tasks, picks faster/better candidates

• p216 Mahia Peninsula, Onenui Station

• p221 Steven Joyce NZ minister of economic development

• p223 Much NZ/US State Department negotiation, then bilateral treaty in late 2016
• p224 May 2017 raises another $75M, total funding $150M

• p225 Naomi Altman flight termination system

• p226 May 25 test, first and second stage nominal, after 4 minutes US safety officers order termination
  • problem with US tracking software, rocket would have safely achieved orbit otherwise
• p227-8 January 2018 second successful launch, Planet Labs Dove and meter-sized reflective geodesic sphere, brightest object in night sky for months
• p229 November 2018 raises another $140M, valuation over $1 billion, Beck still owns 25%

• p231 added kick stage, second launch pad Wallops Island, Rutherford engines also made in the US

End of edit conflict

more later

Elon Musk

Tesla, SpaceX, and the quest for a fantastic future

Ecco Books 2015

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