Jeffrey Manber
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Jeffrey Manber is regarded as one of the pioneering commercial space entrepreneurs. His early interest in space took the form of writing on microgravity business opportunities for publications such as The New York Times, McGraw Hill, and Town & Country Magazine, among others.
This work led him to be invited by the Reagan Administration to help establish the Office of Space Commerce within the U.S. Department of Commerce. In so doing, he became involved in the early efforts by the Soviet Union 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 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 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 then-Soviet space assets.
In 1992, Manber became chief executive officer of Energia USA, which represented the Russian space company NPO Energia. His initial task was to help coordinate the first contact between the U.S. space agency NASA and the then-Soviet space program for use of the re-entry vehicle Soyuz for the then-planned space station Freedom. His work with senior NASA officials Arnie Aldridge and Sam Keller led to opening the door between the Russian space program 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 project. The payoff in terms of safety took place when the Clinton Administration agreed to move the orbital inclination 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.
In 1999 Manber was asked to head MirCorp, which leased the aging space station Mir for two years. Though commercially unsuccessful, it proved the business model that a private company could operate a manned space program and generate revenues in a non-traditional manner.
History was made in April of 2000 when the world’s first and still only manned mission to space took place under the direction of a private company. Two cosmonauts, commander Sergei Zalyoton 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.
MirCorp concluded a number of ground-breaking agreements. Jeffrey Manber signed Dennis Tito, the first space tourist to pay for his own ticket, to his launch contract. He also signed a contract with television producer Mark Burnett, 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 of 2001 and MirCorp was shut down.
Later, Manber negotiated an agreement that allowed retailer Radio Shack 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.
In addition to many published articles on space and foreign policy, Manber is also the co-author of Lincoln’s Wrath, published by Sourcebooks Amazon, which tells the story of media censorship against anti-war newspapers during the time of Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. civil war.
Manber’s most recent venture is Yuzoz MSNBC.com, which generates random numbers from live astronomical events, such as solar flares, northern lights and solar winds, for a variety of commercial products.
