I requested this book from Netgalley for a few different reasons. The number one reason being that I’m slightly obsessed with humanity’s scientific journey to attempt to get us in to space. My husband has heard me say more than once that, given the opportunity, I would gladly upend my life and go live on Mars to assist in terraforming. I’ve just always been interested in space, and space exploration and ultimately am a little resentful of the fact that I will most likely never get to see what’s beyond our Earth with my own eyes. I wanted to know what future generations have to look forward to with regard to space travel, and how we’re going to get there. I’m also a huge fan of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, so part of me requesting this was a little bit of fangirling.

Ultimately this ended up being an exceptionally interesting read about the engineering, politics, social-economics, and costs involved with getting us into space as a long-term solution for habitation and reparation to our Earth. Both of these men are scary smart and I truly believe that if anyone is going to get us into space, it’s going to be these 2. They’ve both had huge battles to get to where they are, whether it be using their own personal money to fund their space projects, fighting NASA for the right to do so, or suing the government for asinine contractual requirements and pressures.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in what our current space program looks like, and how the commercialization of space flight is ultimately going to be what gets us off our blue planet.

Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

THE SPACE BARONS

The last time man set foot on the moon was on 14 December 1972, and it’s remarkable to consider that we have not returned since.

True, in the intervening period we’ve sent numerous satellites into orbit, landed them on an asteroid and a comet, and have even sent a probe to Mars. Yet the promise of having our species go to the far reaches of space—what for all intents and purposes ought to have been the next logical step—remains unfulfilled. Indeed, it may even be argued that not only have we failed to make significant progress in this regard but that we have take several steps backwards.

Over the past decade, however, initiatives have emerged intent on reversing this trend. Interestingly, these efforts are led not by nation-states but by billionaires enamored by the allure of space and the commercial potential of taking people there. What’s even more surprising is that it looks like they’re succeeding.

The Space Barons: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos is Christian Davenport’s account of how this private sector-led space race got started.

Although not evident from the book’s title, there are actually three billionaires that have set their sights on taking human beings to the outer reaches of space. Yes, there’s Jeff Bezos, whose company Blue Origin is the end product of a lifelong fascination with space that began with the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. Yes, it’s inevitable to talk about Elon Musk, too, who is coming ever closer to making his ambition of colonizing Mars a reality at his company SpaceX. But there’s also Richard Branson, who remains keen on unlocking the profit potential of manned spaceflight through Virgin Galactic.

Author Davenport presents a riveting account of how each of these individuals set about bringing their space age aspirations to life. Naturally, it’s interesting to learn what inspired Bezos, Musk, and Branson to establish Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, respectively, as well as the challenges each would experience to get to where they are today. Suffice it to say, getting to space is hard. In that regard, it’s amusing how the race to get there would also get their competitive juices going, and The Space Barons is equally about the one-upmanship and rivalries that would ensue between brilliant and moneyed people who, at the end of the day, have the same goal in mind but differ in their means for getting there.

More than this, what Davenport does exceptionally well in The Space Barons is articulate how extraordinary it is to be living in a time when the private sector is leading the push to make manned space exploration possible. Again, the problem of how to make space travel economical is a nontrivial one, and it seems almost commonsensical in hindsight to assume that only a market-driven effort will make such an outcome affordable. Yet until the likes of Bezos, Musk, and Branson bet their own fortunes to make it so, the prospect of getting to space was yet another natural monopoly controlled by governments. Small wonder, then, that when returning to the moon or colonizing the cosmos ceased to be a policy priority—nevermind the spillover benefits in terms of science and technology—the end result was stagnation, if not regression.

There’s no telling whether the story told in The Space Barons will ultimately prove to be successful. Considering how much ground Bezos, Musk, and Branson still have to make up, there remains much work to be done. But the important thing to keep in mind is that they are, for the moment, succeeding. This present race to space may very well be little more than the eccentricities of wealthy billionaires, but there is method to their madness—and now traveling through space is ever more within our reach as a species.

The Space Barons is an inside look at the efforts to commercialize space and the race to be the leaders again in space flight. Of course I had heard of SpaceX and watched the YouTube videos, I had heard of Virgin Galactic, but am ashamed to say that I had no idea about Blue Origin and Jeff Bezo's role in the race.

The race is on, the setbacks have been real, the costs have been high but progress is being made. It is a fascinating read, especially the differences between the billionaires and their methods. It makes you wonder what benefit there might be in joining forces versus the role of the competition. So many resources, so many ideas. Should there be more collaboration?

I recommend reading this, learning more, and look forward to a part II in a couple of years.

Very interesting great example of unbiased reporting was hard to put down because it was so good. I especially enjoyed the details and back stories as good a read as other biographical novels of our age!

The full title of this book, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, emphasizes the battle between two of the main figures in the book. While I understand the name-dropping can potentially help in selling more copies, I feel it is important to mention others featured in the book: Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founder), Burt Rutan (not a “Baron,” but important for his role), and Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Group).

I chose to read this book because of my previous interest in space exploration/colonization, which unfortunately did not extend much further than what NASA had accomplished. While I was aware of three of the names involved (Bezos, Musk, and Branson), I did not know who had accomplished what. Author Christian Davenport’s book helped to fill in my knowledge gaps. I questioned whether the book would be on the dry side, but the author’s storytelling style soon proved me wrong.

Mr. Davenport lists an extensive number of sources he employed to write the book, along with interviews with the people directly involved in this new space race involving individuals and companies. The end result is an inside look at the dreams and fears along with the failures and successes of each entrepreneur. All possess the ultimate goal of enabling mankind to be able to safely travel in space, yet each also has variations of what he believes can be possible. The author not only details what has happened, he outlines the future plans of each company.

I didn’t find this to be a quick read, as there was much to absorb. That said, I found the book to be engaging, and I didn’t feel the urge to speed-read through the content. Mr. Davenport presents the information as if it were a book-length feature article. Extremely informative for anyone wishing to learn what has been going on with the space program over the last twenty years. Four stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Perseus Books (Public Affairs) for an advance copy of this book (Publish Date: April 17, 2018).

My wife is from Cameroon so she thrilled that the first creature that America sent into orbit was from Cameroon.

The creature was named Enos. He was a chimp from Cameroon. He flew aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 on November 29, 1961. Enos logged three hours and 21 minutes in space. He paved the way for the first American orbital flight just three months later.

I’m a fan of space exploration and astronomy. I’m a even bigger fan of the privatization of spaceflight so I’ve been following the news fairly closely.

Still, just like I didn’t know about Enos the chimp, Christian Davenport’s upcoming book, Space Barons: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, delivers plenty of facts that I didn’t know about.

If you’ve been meticulously following the headlines, then I suppose there’s little new in Davenport’s book. Test yourself.

Did you know that . . .
. . . Jeff Bezos nearly died in a helicopter crash?
. . . the big aerospace giants (e.g., Boeing) called SpaceX an “ankle biter” and that Elon Musk would basically call Blue Origin the same thing years later?
. . . Bezos and Musk are rocket geeks but that Richard Branson knows little about them?
. . . Paul Allen loves space exploration but is terrified of the risk of losing a human life?
. . . Bezos is the turtle and Musk is the hare?

Soviet space feats

Although it's not mentioned in the book, I recently learned that Americans were NOT the first to land something on the moon. The Soviets were. They landed Luna 2 on the moon's surface a stunning 10 years before Apollo 11 (the first humans to land on the moon).

It's just more proof how we glorify our own country. I wonder if you grew up in Russia, you'd hear nonstop about Luna 2 but almost nothing about Apollo 11.

Yes, it's more impressive to land humans on the moon and return to them safely to Earth than to crash an object into the moon, but we still ought to acknowledge the Soviet accomplishment and not ignore it.

Fortunately, Americans do talk about Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin.Still, that's just the tip of the Soviet Space Program's iceberg. To quote Wikipedia:

[The Soviets were] responsible for a number of pioneering accomplishments in space flight including the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik 1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexey Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact (Luna 2), first image of the far side of the moon (Luna 3) and unmanned lunar soft landing (Luna 9), first space rover (Lunokhod 1), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth (Luna 16), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets.

So let's stop thinking that Americans were the only space pioneers.

Sadly, Space Barons continues this sad tradition of ignoring the pioneering accomplishments of the Russians. For example, it doesn't even mention MirCorp, which sent the first space tourist (and wannabe space baron), Dennis Tito, to the International Space Station.

Instead, Space Barons focuses mostly on Bezos and Musk since the biggest space barons today. The book discusses Paul Allen, Richard Branson, and Peter Diamandis.

Since Elon Musk and SpaceX are such great marketers, you've probably heard a lot about them and seen some of their videos. What I like about Space Barons is that it delves into the mysterious Blue Origin. I just wish Davenport's interview with Bezos was a bit more revealing than it was.

Fortunately, Blue Origin has come out of the closet and has shown off some amazing feats. Check out these two videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDHM6iuogI

This second video really could use narration/music and an altimeter, but it's still stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA

Blue Origin claims that they land at 1 mile per hour, but that landing certainly doesn't look that soft. It looks at least 5 miles per hour, if not 10. Regardless, Skywalker Manniquin survived.

Space Barons does not mention several companies that plan to mine asteroids. That's a pity. Perhaps Davenport believes that other companies are too small and/or their leaders aren't true "barons" yet.

Despite these shortcomings, I loved reading Space Barons. It's one of those rare books that I devoured. I read a book a week. This is one that was hard to put down. It's one of my favorite books that I read in 2017.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to read it until April 17, 2018, which is when the book is made available to the public.

The main downside of the book is that by 2020 it will be out of date since progress in space is happening quickly. So pre-order it today and read it once you get it.

Verdict: 9/10 stars

A timely book on the rise of what some people call NewSpace - new commercial companies that are quickly surpassing governments in their ability to build rockets and spaceships. While SpaceX, run by Elon Musk of Tesla and PayPal fame, is probably the most notable, it also covers less well publicized companies and personalities such Blue Origin and its owner Jeff Bezos, who also owns Amazon.

Space Barons failed to capture my interest in the long run. The initial chapters about Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos weren't well organized, but they had enough interesting bits that I kept coming back to the book. When Burt Rutan's story was introduced, however, the author lost me.
Mr. Davenport followed the same patten too many times: tell a bit of a story, introduce a new character, swing back in time to fill in some history of the character, then proceed in the main story on to the next character. Much about the failed progress of NASA was repeated again and again.
This is an interesting topic, but it needs to be organized differently.
I read an advanced readers copy provided by NetGalley.
#Space Barons #NetGalley

A great read on the major players in the ever-evolving space industry.

Thanks to Perseus Books, Public Affairs and Netgalley for the ARC of this fantastic non-fiction work. Admittedly, I am a bit of a space geek, but I don’t think you have to be to enjoy this. The new space race competition by 21st century billionaires is fascinating and exciting. The writing was very good, the pace was perfect.