????史蒂夫?尤爾韋特松不記得他究竟是先有了這種愛(ài)好，還是先產(chǎn)生了投資興趣。但他的確記得，2005年，他和兒子開始擺弄火箭模型，他們隨后第一次趕赴內(nèi)華達(dá)州的黑巖沙漠，觀看了一場(chǎng)DIY（自己動(dòng)手）火箭盛會(huì)。

????“我們看著這些碩大的火箭，當(dāng)時(shí)就想：‘這些玩意太瘋狂了，我絕不會(huì)做這種事，瘋子才會(huì)這么干，”尤爾韋特松說(shuō)。“時(shí)間快進(jìn)到今天，我們現(xiàn)在做的正是這種東西。”

????尤爾韋特松是硅谷風(fēng)投基金德豐杰投資公司(Draper Fisher Jurvetson)的合伙人之一，他花了大量的工作時(shí)間來(lái)思考技術(shù)如何顛覆市場(chǎng)，怎樣才能找到最新穎、最有望改變現(xiàn)有范式的初創(chuàng)公司。但并非巧合的是，他同時(shí)還是SpaceX和PlanetLabs這兩家公司的董事，后者是一家小型低成本地球成像衛(wèi)星制造商。（德豐杰公司是這兩家公司的投資者。）

????尤爾韋特松長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)一直在培養(yǎng)自己對(duì)太空和航天的興趣，他在德豐杰公司總部(位于加州門洛帕克市）的辦公室散落著多年來(lái)收集的源自阿波羅時(shí)代的美國(guó)航空航天局(NASA)物品。過(guò)去十年，他和他的兒子們把他們對(duì)加州中央谷和黑巖沙漠的癡迷轉(zhuǎn)化成了具體的行動(dòng)，在每隔幾個(gè)月舉辦的DIY活動(dòng)上建造、發(fā)射體積更大、更復(fù)雜的火箭。

????“孩子們的個(gè)頭越來(lái)越大，火箭的體量也越來(lái)越大，”尤爾韋特松說(shuō)。“我們一直在興致勃勃地挑戰(zhàn)極限，看看我們究竟能夠制造出多大多快的火箭。”

????這種愛(ài)好非常契合尤爾韋特松的投資興趣，以及21世紀(jì)的技術(shù)（特別是太空技術(shù)）發(fā)展潮流。自從他在過(guò)去十年的中期開始設(shè)計(jì)、制造他的第一支火箭以來(lái)，移動(dòng)設(shè)備的迅猛發(fā)展已經(jīng)迅速地（有些人會(huì)說(shuō)非常殘忍地）降低了芯片、傳感器和其他電子產(chǎn)品的價(jià)格，以至于現(xiàn)在任何人都有能力制造一支極富技術(shù)含量、能夠精確測(cè)量速度、高度和方向等指標(biāo)的火箭。現(xiàn)在，尤爾韋特松父子在動(dòng)手打造（也有可能摧毀）火箭之前，能夠使用火箭設(shè)計(jì)軟件進(jìn)行詳盡的仿真模擬。而就在短短幾年前，這也是大多數(shù)DIY火箭愛(ài)好者不可想象的事情。

????尤爾韋特松說(shuō)，同樣是這些技術(shù)力量，再加上聯(lián)邦政府的政策改變，正在推動(dòng)許多私人太空發(fā)射和衛(wèi)星公司進(jìn)入太空。這種正在發(fā)生的轉(zhuǎn)變不僅在改變可能性，同時(shí)也在改變經(jīng)濟(jì)上的可行性。“很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間以來(lái)，太空領(lǐng)域并沒(méi)有明顯的創(chuàng)業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)，”尤爾韋特松說(shuō)。“從1995年我開始做這行，直到2005年或2006年，我還沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)任何一家看起來(lái)值得拜訪的公司。現(xiàn)在大不一樣了，有一大批公司值得考慮。”

????一些追求這些機(jī)會(huì)的人本身就是火箭愛(ài)好者，盡管“愛(ài)好者”或許并不是一個(gè)完全正確的詞匯。尤爾韋特松是在火箭試驗(yàn)場(chǎng)第一次遇到PlanetLabs公司的運(yùn)營(yíng)團(tuán)隊(duì)——幾位前美國(guó)航空航天局的科學(xué)家。無(wú)論出于什么原因，火箭技術(shù)也對(duì)其他的硅谷技術(shù)型創(chuàng)業(yè)者具有強(qiáng)大的吸引力。繁忙的日程和進(jìn)入壁壘使得他的一些同事保持著一種觀望態(tài)度，“但每當(dāng)我向任何一位高科技企業(yè)家提起火箭技術(shù)時(shí)，他們總是說(shuō)他們非常想進(jìn)入這一領(lǐng)域，”尤爾韋特松說(shuō)。其中一些人已經(jīng)在這樣做了：除了他的兒子，Nest公司業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展副總裁埃里克?查爾頓也經(jīng)常跟尤爾韋特松一起發(fā)射火箭。

????問(wèn)起他的愛(ài)好，尤爾韋特松立即給出了熱情的回應(yīng)，時(shí)而聊起他已經(jīng)建造好的火箭，時(shí)而描繪一張路線圖，洋洋灑灑地列舉正在軌道上浮現(xiàn)的無(wú)數(shù)機(jī)遇。他認(rèn)為火箭發(fā)射和衛(wèi)星行業(yè)正在經(jīng)歷一個(gè)迅速的轉(zhuǎn)型時(shí)期。他的語(yǔ)言深入淺出，但又不乏火箭科學(xué)術(shù)語(yǔ)，讓人覺(jué)得他非常了解相關(guān)技術(shù)，知道所有這一切的運(yùn)行機(jī)理，而且深信所有這一切在不久的將來(lái)就會(huì)變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。尤爾韋特松講了一個(gè)故事：他和兒子曾經(jīng)把一支火箭的速度提升至2.5馬赫（即時(shí)速約1,900英里），但尾翼隨后脫離，造成了嚴(yán)重故障。他說(shuō)：“天空中在那一瞬間好像舉辦了一場(chǎng)舊貨甩賣活動(dòng)，整個(gè)火箭都散了架，重新變成了零部件。”

????他說(shuō)：無(wú)論是對(duì)于應(yīng)用程序、軟件和服務(wù)來(lái)說(shuō)，衛(wèi)星層依然有大機(jī)會(huì)，但只有當(dāng)每磅貨運(yùn)的發(fā)射成本大幅降低之后，這一切才能成為現(xiàn)實(shí)。

????“這就好比只有當(dāng)更多的光纖廠建立起來(lái)之后，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)才會(huì)變得更加經(jīng)濟(jì)可行，”尤爾韋特松說(shuō)。“同樣，當(dāng)SpaceX和其他公司降低進(jìn)入天空的成本之后，更多的衛(wèi)星創(chuàng)新才會(huì)出現(xiàn)，甚至有可能提供覆蓋整個(gè)地球的高速寬帶。軟件和服務(wù)層面想必會(huì)賺到大錢。”

????Steve Jurvetson doesn't remember which came first, the hobby or the investment interest. But he does remember going out to Nevada's Black Rock Desert with his son for the first time in 2005 to witness a do-it-yourself rocketry event after he and his son began dabbling in model rockets.

????"We saw these enormous rockets, and I remember thinking 'That's just crazy stuff, I would never do something like that, that's nuts." Jurvetson says. "Fast-forward to today, and we're doing exactly that kind of stuff."

????As a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital fund Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Jurvetson spends his working hours thinking about how technologies upend markets and seeking out the most novel, potentially paradigm-shifting startup companies he can find. But it's no coincidence that he also sits on the board of both SpaceX and PlanetLabs, a maker of small, low-cost earth-imaging satellites. (DFJ is invested in both companies.)

????Jurvetson has long cultivated an interest space and spaceflight, and his office at DFJ's Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters is littered with Apollo-era NASA artifacts he's collected over the years. For the last decade, he and his sons have acted on that fascination in California's Central Valley and the Black Rock Desert, building and launching ever larger and more sophisticated rockets at DIY events held every few months.

????"The kids got bigger, the rockets got bigger," Jurvetson says. "And we've had a really fun time pushing the envelope with how big or how fast we can build a rocket."

????It's a hobby that dovetails nicely both with Jurvetson's investment interests as well as the broader arc of technology -- especially space technology -- in the 21st century. Since he began designing and constructing his first rockets in the middle of the last decade, the tremendous leaps and bounds of mobile devices have rapidly (some would say brutally) driven down the prices of chips, sensors, and other electronics to the point that anyone can now make a rocket imbued with technologies that allow for precise measurements of speed, altitude, and orientation. Jurvetson and his sons can now run detailed software simulations on a rocket design before they build (and potentially wreck) it, something that was unthinkable for most DIY rocketeers even a few years ago.

????These same technological forces, plus a change of heart for the federal government, are democratizing access to space through private space launch and satellite companies, Jurveston says. That ongoing shift is transforming not only the art of the possible but the art of the financially feasible. "There were not obvious venture opportunities in space for a long time," Jurvetson says. "From when I started in 1995 until 2005 or 2006, I didn't see anything that looked even worth a first meeting. Now it's very different -- there are a whole bunch of them."

????Some of the people pursuing those opportunities are rocket hobbyists themselves -- though "amateur" might not be exactly the right term. Jurvetson first met the team of former NASA scientists that now run DFJ-backed PlanetLabs on the rocket range. For whatever reason, rocketry maintains a strong allure for other Silicon Valley technologist-types as well. Busy schedules and something of a barrier to entry keep some of his colleagues on the outside looking in, "but anytime I mention it to any tech entrepreneur, they say how much they want to get out there," Jurvetson says. Some of them do: Aside from his sons, the person with whom Jurvetson launches most often is Erik Charlton, vice president of business at Nest.

????Ask him about his hobby and Jurvetson enthusiastically responds, careening between a discussion of the rockets he's built and a road map of the myriad opportunities emerging in orbit, where both the space launch and satellite industries are going through periods of rapid transformation. He uses layman's language sprinkled with the jargon of a rocket scientist, hinting at a deep technical understanding of how all this works -- and how it all will work someday in the not-too-distant future. Jurvetson tells a story about the time he and his son pushed a rocket to Mach 2.5 -- approximately 1,900 miles per hour -- before a fin separated and caused a critical failure. "It was an instant yard sale in the sky, the entire thing shredded back into the components it was made of," he says.

????There remains big opportunity in the satellite layer -- for applications, software, services -- that only comes when the cost-per-pound of launch cargo decreases, he says.

????"The analogy would be when fiber optic plants got more built up and made the Internet more feasible," Jurvetson says. "Similarly when SpaceX and others create cheaper access to space, you'll have more satellite innovation, maybe even broadband for the entire planet. And presumably big money would be made in the software and services layer."