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The Space Barons
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
The historic quest to rekindle the human exploration and colonization of space led by two rivals and their vast fortunes, egos, and visions of space as the next entrepreneurial frontier
The Space Barons is the story of a group of billionaire entrepreneurs who are pouring their fortunes into the epic resurrection of the American space program. Nearly a half-century after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, these Space Barons-most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with Richard Branson and Paul Allen-are using Silicon Valley-style innovation to dramatically lower the cost of space travel, and send humans even further than NASA has gone. These entrepreneurs have founded some of the biggest brands in the world-Amazon, Microsoft, Virgin, Tesla, PayPal-and upended industry after industry. Now they are pursuing the biggest disruption of all: space.
Based on years of reporting and exclusive interviews with all four billionaires, this authoritative account is a dramatic tale of risk and high adventure, the birth of a new Space Age, fueled by some of the world’s richest men as they struggle to end governments’ monopoly on the cosmos. The Space Barons is also a story of rivalry-hard-charging startups warring with established contractors, and the personal clashes of the leaders of this new space movement, particularly Musk and Bezos, as they aim for the moon and Mars and beyond.
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The Space Barons is the story of a group of billionaire entrepreneurs who are pouring their fortunes into the epic resurrection of the American space program. Nearly a half-century after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, these Space Barons-most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with Richard Branson and Paul Allen-are using Silicon Valley-style innovation to dramatically lower the cost of space travel, and send humans even further than NASA has gone. These entrepreneurs have founded some of the biggest brands in the world-Amazon, Microsoft, Virgin, Tesla, PayPal-and upended industry after industry. Now they are pursuing the biggest disruption of all: space.
Based on years of reporting and exclusive interviews with all four billionaires, this authoritative account is a dramatic tale of risk and high adventure, the birth of a new Space Age, fueled by some of the world’s richest men as they struggle to end governments’ monopoly on the cosmos. The Space Barons is also a story of rivalry-hard-charging startups warring with established contractors, and the personal clashes of the leaders of this new space movement, particularly Musk and Bezos, as they aim for the moon and Mars and beyond.
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Reader Reviews
Praise
"The Space Barons
by Christian Davenport, a Washington Post reporter, is an exciting narrative
filled with colorful reporting and sharp insights. The book sparkles because of
Davenport's access to the main players and his talent for crisp storytelling."—Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review
"The Space Barons
is a pacy, smartly reported book on the new generation of entrepreneurs who are
transforming the business of space... [The] book fizzes with some wonderful human
stories of imagination and endeavor but also provides a broad sweep of the
current state of the space industry."—Financial Times
"Davenport
displays his reporting and storytelling skills. His writing is tight and,
suitably for the subject matter, propulsive. He fleshes out the main
protagonists with fine character vignettes."—The Washington Post
"Highly accessible... Davenport's access to key players, from the companies'
founders to its employees, lends authority to his account."—Scientific Inquirer
"Important and revealing"—The Weekly Standard
"The
Space Barons is fastidious and engrossing"—The Spectator
"Entertaining,
skillfully narrated book"—The Week
"In The Space
Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, Christian
Davenport tells the backstories of the billionaires who are vying for control
of the emerging NewSpace industry."—The New Yorker
"Christian Davenport has written a terrific book on the new space
entrepreneurs."—Newt Gingrich
"Topping my reading list for space fans this summer is The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the
Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, Christian Davenport's fine new book on
competition in the New Space world."—Forbes.com
"In The Space Barons, Davenport lays
out a compelling narrative of how Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Jeff Bezos (Blue
Origin, Amazon), Richard Branson (Virgin) and Paul Allen (Microsoft) all
dreamed at an early age of the prospects of commercial space travel...Through
compelling storytelling... [and] impressive research and extensive interviews."—Winnipeg Free Press
"In prose more than worthy of a staff writer at the Washington Post, Davenport glides effortlessly between
biographical vignettes, engineering and financial challenges in building spacecraft,
government obstacles to private space exploration, project failures and
triumphs, and rivalry as 'the best rocket fuel.'"—Seeking Alpha
"Strap in, you
dreamers of space travel, you lovers of invention, you admirers of the
unquenchable thirst for exploration, for here is a book that will thrill you to
your core... It's a wonderful story, a thrilling adventure of literal and
metaphoric highs and lows, based on interviews with the billionaires but
encompassing a much broader range of reporting... A big story, told through its
vividly evoked small details."—Booklist
"Readers will thrill at this lucid, detailed,
and admiring account of wealthy space buffs who are spending their own money,
making headlines, producing genuine technical advances, and resurrecting the
yearning to explore the cosmos."—Kirkus, Starred Review
"Starting
with a blank canvas, Christian Davenport has painted a comprehensive portrait
of some of the most influential leaders in commercial space, and indeed of the
industry itself. Well-researched and entertaining, The Space Barons gives
both a rich texture to the beginnings and a tantalizing outline of the future
of commercial human space travel."—Michael Lopez-Alegria, former NASA astronaut, past president of the Commercial Space Flight Federation, and principal, MLA Space, LLC
"A must-read. A compelling account of how today's self-made tycoons are
driven to change our world and our relationship with outer space. This is
distinctly an American story, nowhere but America could these Space Barons
rise, thrive, and succeed. Follow their journey into the future."—Dr. Mark Albrecht, executive secretary of the National Space Council under President George H. W. Bush and author of Falling Back to Earth: A First Hand Account of the Great Space Race and the End of the Cold War
"Unlike the space race of the 1950s and 1960s, the new space race is not
a competition between superpowers-it is a competition among billionaires with
egos and ambitions that match their fortunes. The Space Barons provides
a superb behind-the-scenes look that chronicles the new space race from its
beginning some two decades ago to the headlines of today. This book is a
must-read for everyone who fell in love with space as a kid and still longs to
reach for the heavens."—Todd Harrison, Center for Strategic and International Studies
