Silicon Sky
Publisher: Basic Books | ISBN: 0738203122 | edition 2000 | PDF | 352 pages | 29,8 mb
The small start-up of the title, now a darling of investors, is Orbital Satellite Corporation. At a time when the U.S. government's space programs had slid into a pattern of what aerospace historian Alex Roland called gargantuan missions, overwrought technology and excessive budgets, David Thompson--the driving spirit and CEO of Orbital--saw an opportunity for commercial success in space. His idea was to put up a constellation of small satellites in orbit a few hundred miles above the earth to provide such consumer services as telecommunications, position finding and vehicle navigation.