| ROCKETEERS How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots is Boldly Privatizing Space Michael Belfiore New York: HarperCollins, 2007 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-061-14902-3 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-061-14902-0 | 305p. | HC/FCI | $26.95 | |
Michael Belfiore may be the only American print journalist whose regular beat is what has come to be called "NewSpace" — the set of young commercial space-launch companies. He has written for publications including Wired News, Reuters, and New Scientist, and I think he is a regular contributor to Popular Science. This is his first book.
I've read that once, before Henry Ford came along, there were over 1,800 makers of automobiles in this country. There aren't nearly that many space-launch entrepreneurs, of course; but there are (or have been) quite a few. They get little media coverage; with the possible exception of Burt Rutan's company, not one of them could likely be named by the man on the street.1 Rutan is the exception because his brother Dick and Jeanna Yeager flew an airplane he designed around the world without refueling, and because more recently (2004) his Spaceship One won the Ansari X Prize.2 Such prizes were instrumental in fostering the development of early aviation. Then, Belfiore notes, "Unlike the beginning of spaceflight, early aviation was dominated by tinkerers, small businesses, and garage inventors, and many of the advances they made were fueled by cash prizes offered by some of the premier institutions and business leaders of their day." (page 21)
Things were moving fast enough in 2004 that Belfiore felt the need to add an Epilogue to his book. Things have continued to move fast since his book was published in 2007. I am privileged to be able to provide an update. Following on their original X Prize success, the X Prize Foundation will offer a yearly X Prize Cup for the winners of rocket races at Las Cruces, New Mexico when the Rocket Racing League gets organized this year or next. The X Prize concept has also spawned a series of Lunar Lander Challenges, sponsored by NASA and several established companies (not all in aerospace.) Masten Space Systems won the Lunar Lander Challenge for accuracy in a remote-control landing.
Among NewSpace companies, Bigelow Aerospace has the prototype of its inflatable residence module (my term) on orbit and is preparing for a second to be launched. SpaceX has achieved a successful launch to orbit. Burt Rutan is designing Spaceship Two, a vehicle for Richard Branson, in an suborbital-tourism operation to be called Virgin Galactic. XCOR has announced its Xerus suborbital ship. And Blue Origin... well, they continue to play their cards close to the vest.
Belfiore's book provides details on the origination of the X Prize and shows us some of the competitors getting ready to try their luck. It takes us along as Rutan's company3 designs and flies Spaceship One twice within two weeks as the Ansari X Prize rules demand — a feat not devoid of white-knuckle moments. Then it shows us other NewSpace companies including Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, SpaceDev, SpaceX, and XCOR Aerospace. The blurb on the book's jacket describes this nascent industry as having a "Wild West, anything-goes flavor." That isn't quite accurate. Even absent today's regulatory regime and the litigiousness of American society, building rockets that people can ride safely would not be a career for the reckless. It's true that a willingness to take risks is required, and a certain flair helps with the PR; but success demands careful engineering above all. Belfiore gets close enough to see this engineering taking place. Unlike another author I might mention, he understands it well enough to show it to us.
"I could think of few things more satisfying in an uncertain world than the whoosh-BOOM! of an igniting rocket engine pouring out enough power to hurl a payload into outer space. In sharp contrast to so much of life, no hedging, equivocating, or hand-waving was possible. Rocket engineering either worked or it didn't, and the mere talkers got separated from the doers in that split second between spark and fire." – page 191 |
The result is a very engrossing tour of a group of companies that are presently little noticed. But stay tuned, folks; I predict that is soon going to change.
Belfiore's narrative skills, honed by his magazine writing, are impressive, and he makes very few mistakes. The text is enhanced by 18 black-and-white photos and 14 color plates, many of them taken by Belfiore himself. His research is thorough, as documented by 261 endnotes and a good index. Rocketeers has my highest recommendation, and I rate it a keeper.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.