Astra/John Krause
One of the most honest moments in the new book, when heaven is for sale, appears during a discussion between two aerospace engineers who worked for rocket company Astra in December 2018. On Sunday, Les Martin and Matt Flanagan were watching football inside his RV parked at Astra’s facility near Oakland, California.
Martin has a lot of experience, especially in launch companies, working primarily on test stands for SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Firefly Space, and now Astra. The two were discussing the challenges of the launch industry and thinking about what companies profit from rocket launches.
martin: The challenge is to get there before the money runs out.
Flanagan: right.
martin: Because it doesn’t take long. This means that you can raise a small amount of money and run right through it. All the money being put into this is ridiculous. Admittedly, there are some charlatans in this business. And what is it for? I don’t see any need for it. It makes no sense. These VCs made money on software and such. And you know, they love space. A lot of the time I think it’s cool that they invest money in this.
Even for us, our overall goal is to launch daily. I’m dead on the ground before that happens or I’m walking down the street with money falling out of my pocket and I don’t care that it goes on sale every day.
Spoiler alert: The Astra doesn’t come out every day. Martin and Flanagan left Astra for nearly three years. Looking back, the exchange is a concise and almost accurate summary of the upheaval in the US commercial launch industry over the past decade or so. Billions invested. We’ve heard very optimistic predictions about launch frequency, including Astra’s ludicrous goal of launching daily. There is a great deal of hard work, sacrifice, and effort behind it, and relatively little to show for it.
That’s the story told in Ashley Vance’s amazing new book, due out May 9th. Vance is the author of an insightful biography of Elon Musk published in 2015. Since then, Silicon Valley journalists have traveled the world. He is embedded with other aspiring space entrepreneurs. In this book, he introduces four of his companies (Planet, Rocket Lab, Astra, and Firefly). When I say “profiled,” he spent weeks, sometimes months, living with and visiting the founders and their employees, providing unparalleled access to their businesses. means that he has the goods
The story of a rocket startup
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in space. Especially if you want to know how a space startup works behind the promises and marketing. This book offers real insight into these companies and the people who work there.
The book is loosely assembled into a basic idea.About 15 years ago, Musk and SpaceX proved that private companies could develop their own liquid-fueled rockets, sparking a new wave of investment in the industry. Venture capitalists were chasing the next Musk and SpaceX as the company’s valuation surpassed $100 billion. Satellite company Planet and launching his startups Rocket Lab, Astra and Firefly are some of the companies looking to get investors. Vance adds another layer by telling the story of his Warden, a maverick scientist and longtime leader of his NASA Ames Research Center in California.
Planet has a wonderfully compelling backstory, but the heart of the book is the story of three rocket startups that Vance spent most of his time reporting and collecting. There are good stories, bad stories, and hilarious stories here, with lots of meat on the bones.
