The Space Barons by Christian Davenport - Book Report #243

This was a terrific read.

Best of all, the book was published this year, making the information very current.

I’ve been frustrated over the years at the lack of information to be found on the websites of SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.  But with this book, Mr. Davenport was able to connect many of the dots and to clearly show where these three companies are headed.

Having grown up with Apollo, I was four years old when Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, I feel an entire generation (mine) has missed the promise and wonder of space.  The shuttle never lived up to increasing access to space and we have not left Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since Apollo 17.

In these pages we learn that we are witnessing the birth of a new golden age of human space flight.  But, instead of building on the legacy of the Saturn V, rockets have been reinvented from the ground up.  They are a very different type of craft, being designed on reusability.

I couldn’t help thinking that if it wasn’t for the International Space Station being a government funded destination in space, we’d not be as far along as we are.  Thank goodness it is there.

You couldn’t ask for a better book to learn about space in the hands of the next generation.

It is an accessible read and will open the door to many Google searches to dive deeper into the subjects covered here.

Highly recommended. 

Ad Astra.

Christian Davenport

Virgin Galactic, The First Ten Years by Erik Seedhouse - Book Report #139

Not to distance myself too far from my science fiction roots my next book to help restore my faith in humanity was the story of Virgin Galactic.

You may have heard about Richard Branson's next way-out business venture; after the success of the Ansari X Prize Branson invested in Scaled Composites to create Spaceship Two and sell tickets to space.

The book tells the story of suborbital flight from it's beginnings and of all the challenges faced with this type of flight.

But the author also delves deeper into the challenges of the first ten years of Virgin Galactic up to and including the tragic crash of October 2014.  Getting this business off the ground (take the pun if you want) requires patience, bravery and deep pockets.  Luckily Branson has all those qualities but I fear that the entire project is in danger of being abandoned - How much more money can he put into this?

Given that I grew up watching the Apollo program, I really want this project to succeed.  As far as I am concerned there should be moon bases all over the place and we should be on Mars by now. Opening space to commercial ventures is the only way space will be truly explored.  Why?  Because there is money to be made up there!

Back to the book - found it odd.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it very much and got more from it than I expected, it's just that it felt like I was reading a paper-bound version of a Wikipedia page.  Maybe it was all the website links listed at the end of each chapter, maybe it's the output the author, I can't put my finger on it. 

And speaking about the author, Seedhouse should be wearing a cape!  Author, astronaut, ultra-long distance athlete, master's degree in medical science, paratrooper -  how can a person like this not be genetically engineered?  Maybe he will simply explode from doing so much.

I kid, but really, this guy is a modern day version of Doc Savage.

Virgin Galactic

http://www.virgingalactic.com/

X Prize - Ansari X Prize

http://www.xprize.org/

http://ansari.xprize.org/

Scaled Composites

http://www.scaled.com/

Erik Seedhouse