![Jeffrey Manber - Festival Economia 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Jeffrey_Manber_-_Festival_Economia_2018.jpg)
Jeffrey Manber is regarded as one of the pioneering commercial space entrepreneurs. As CEO of
NanoRacks
Nanoracks LLC is a private in-space services companywhich builds space hardware and in-space repurposing tools.The company also facilitates experiments and launches of CubeSats to Low Earth Orbit.
Nanoracks's main office is in Houston, Texa ...
, from 2009, Manber has steered the growth of the first company to own and market its own hardware and services on board the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
. Manber has been involved in several of the key breakthrough commercial space projects, principally those revolving around the
commercialization of space assets as well as the integration of the Russian space industry into major space programs, including that of the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
. Manber is believed to be the only American to be an official part of the Russian space corporation,
RSC Energia
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...
, during their privatization period of the 1990s.
History
His early interest in space took the form of writing on microgravity business opportunities for publications such as ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...
, and
''Town & Country'' magazine, among others.
Reagan Administration and Russian cooperation
This work led him to be invited by the
Reagan Administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...
to help establish the Office of Space Commerce within the
U.S. Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for busin ...
. In so doing, he became involved in the early efforts by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
to privatize and commercialize that nation's space efforts. In 1988 he assisted in the first ever commercial contract between the brand-new Soviet space station
Mir
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
and a U.S. company, Boston-based Payload Systems. The highly controversial pharmaceutical research undertaken on this project showed that microgravity was not always conducive to industrial research, despite the claims of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
at that time. He was invited to the Soviet Union in 1989 to witness the launch, and began working with the Russians and the international banking community to privatize post Soviet space assets.
Energia
In 1992, Manber became the managing director of Energia Ltd, which represented the Russian space company
NPO Energia
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...
. His initial task was to help support the first contact between the U.S. space agency NASA and the Russian space program for use of the Soyuz TM crewed spacecraft as a lifeboat for the then-planned
space station Freedom
Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA project to construct a permanently crewed Earth-orbiting space station in the 1980s. Although approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union address, ''Freedom'' ...
. His work with senior NASA officials Arnie Aldrich and Sam Keller helped open the door between the
Russian space program
The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...
and key U.S. aerospace firms, including Lockheed, Boeing and Rockwell Aerospace. His efforts to market the space station Mir played a role in bringing the Russian and American space industries together, ensuring greater safety for astronauts and continuity for the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
project. The payoff in terms of safety took place when the
Clinton Administration agreed to raise the
orbital inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Earth ...
of the U.S. space station to allow for flights from the Russian Soyuz and cargo ship Progress, which proved critical after each of the two groundings of the
space shuttle program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...
.
MirCorp
In 1999, Manber was asked by space entrepreneur Walt Anderson and RSC Energia to head
MirCorp, which leased the aging space station
Mir
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
for two years. Though commercially unsuccessful, it proved the business model that a private company could lease a human space program and generate revenues in a non-traditional manner, as profiled in the documentary film,
Orphans of Apollo
History was made in April 2000 when the world's first privately funded crewed mission to orbit was launched. Two cosmonauts, commander
Sergei Zalyotin
Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin (russian: Серге́й Викторович Залётин; born April 21, 1962) is a Russian cosmonaut and a veteran of two space missions.
Zalyotin was born in Tula, Russia, Tula and attended the Borisoglebsk Hi ...
and
Alexander Kalery traveled to the dormant space station Mir, opened it up and returned the station to normal life. During the more than 70-day mission, a number of critical firsts were achieved: the first commercially funded
space walk, the first space mission without government funding, and the first space explorers to be paid fully by a private company.
Commercial record of MirCorp
MirCorp concluded a number of ground-breaking agreements. Jeffrey Manber signed
Dennis Tito
Dennis Anthony Tito (born August 8, 1940) is an American engineer and entrepreneur. In mid-2001, he became the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space, when he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visitin ...
, the first
space tourist
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.
During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...
to pay for his own ticket, to his launch contract. He also signed a contract with television producer
Mark Burnett
Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a television producer who is the former Chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group. He is best known for creating and producing the reality shows ''The Apprentice'', '' Survivor'', ''The Voice'', and ''Sh ...
, who produced the Survivor reality television series, and with NBC, to develop a game show that would have sent the winner blasting off for a one-week stay on the Mir. However, due to extreme political pressure from NASA,
the space station was de-orbited in March 2001 and MirCorp was shut down.
Later, Manber negotiated an agreement that allowed retailer
Radio Shack
RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921.
At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...
to film the first commercial shot on the International Space Station, to be shown on American television, which featured a Russian Cosmonaut opening a Father's Day gift.
NanoRacks
Since 2009, Jeffrey Manber has been the CEO of
NanoRacks
Nanoracks LLC is a private in-space services companywhich builds space hardware and in-space repurposing tools.The company also facilitates experiments and launches of CubeSats to Low Earth Orbit.
Nanoracks's main office is in Houston, Texa ...
, the first company to own and market its own hardware and services on board the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
. At NanoRacks, Manber has overseen the deployment of over 300 payloads to the ISS, with 64 satellites deployed to low Earth orbit as of September 2015.
The
NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer
The Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) is a device to deploy CubeSats into orbit from the International Space Station (ISS).
In 2014, two CubeSat deployers were on board the International Space Station (ISS): the Japanese Experiment Module ...
became the first commercial platform to deploy satellites from the ISS in 2014.
Works
In addition to many published articles on space and foreign policy, Manber is the author of the 2009 book, ''Selling Peace: Inside the Soviet Conspiracy That Transformed the U.S. Space Program'', which was published by
Apogee Books.
He is also the co-author of the 2005 book, ''Lincoln's Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a President's Mission to Destroy the Press'', published by
Sourcebooks
Sourcebooks, Inc., is an independent book publisher located in Naperville, Illinois. The company publishes books, ebooks, and digital products, and is one of the 20 largest publishers in the United States.
History
The company was founded in 1 ...
, which tells the story of media censorship against anti-war newspapers during the time of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.
Other activities
Manber also served as CEO of
Yuzozbr>
MSNBC.com which generates random numbers from live astronomical events, such as
solar flare
A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other sol ...
s,
northern lights and
solar winds, for a variety of commercial products.
See also
*''
Orphans of Apollo'', a 2008 documentary in which he appeared
References
External links
JeffreyManber.com*
SellingPeace.comLincoln's Wrath - Amazon.comNanoRacksllc.comMirCorp.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manber, Jeffrey
Living people
American businesspeople
Private spaceflight
Year of birth missing (living people)
American male writers