Silicon Sky

the long version

For well over a decade, some of the world's largest defense companies have been locked in a race to launch the first constellation of commercial satellites. The prize? An explosive global market for personal communications worth billions of dollars. But in 1992, a dark horse emerged. A young engineer with an eye for opportunity entered the fray with a seemingly crazy idea: to build his own rockets, satellites, and a multimillion-dollar company that could go head-to-head against the big boys. Silicon Sky is the story of David Thompson's electrifying grab for the heavens - the gold fields of a new space age. Author Gary Dorsey steps inside the high bays and corporate board rooms of the Orbital Sciences Corporation to document the dramatic unfolding of an ambitious project that ushered in a new era of commercial space. In the process, he penetrates the lives of a young team of engineers and entrepreneurs captivated by the dream of doing something no one had done before. Silicon Sky reveals the incredible complexity, loneliness, and sacrifice necessary for a pioneering achievement in the new era of space commerce. But it is also an intensely personal drama about engineering and grand ambition, an archetypal tale of American ingenuity, hard work, guts, and glory.