June 27, 2017 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast with Iridium CEO Matt Desch
Embedded below the fold. This podcast is a bit different, in that John and I essentially interviewed the CEO of Iridium, asking him questions about the company and their launch contracts with SpaceX. I was especially interested in Desch’s earlier statements saying that Iridium is negotiating with SpaceX about using used first stages, but wanted any use to be accompanied by an acceleration of its launch schedule.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Embedded below the fold. This podcast is a bit different, in that John and I essentially interviewed the CEO of Iridium, asking him questions about the company and their launch contracts with SpaceX. I was especially interested in Desch’s earlier statements saying that Iridium is negotiating with SpaceX about using used first stages, but wanted any use to be accompanied by an acceleration of its launch schedule.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
From Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium: “Certainly, SpaceX has really been a disrupter of the industry, and I think they’ve shaken everything up, and they’ve made it possible for operators like us to even consider our next generation [of satellites].”
This comment echos the one from Maxim Zayakov, CEO of BulgariaSat: “People don’t realize that, for small countries and small companies like us, without SpaceX, there was no way we would ever be able to even think about space”
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/bulgaria-credits-spacexs-low-costs-for-making-its-satellite-possible/
One of the benefits of reducing the cost of getting to space is that more companies can afford to get there in order to do business. It is basic economics: lower prices and greater supply lead to greater demand. That is why it was predicted, a decade or two ago, that if launch costs were reduced then there would be more demand to get to space. It looks like the economic supply/demand model and the predictions are being proved correct.