Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
This “smart analysis of the New Space sector” goes inside the rapid rise and dramatic rivalry of private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin (The New York Times Book Review).
 
For the outsize personalities staking their fortunes on spaceships, the new race to explore space could be a dead end, a lucrative opportunity—or the key to humanity’s survival. Rocket Billionaires shines a light on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as they attempt to make history, reinvent the space economy, and feed their own egos. Beyond these two towering figures, Tim Fernholz introduces a supporting cast of equally fascinating entrepreneurs, from the irrepressible British mogul Richard Branson to the satellite internet visionary Greg Wyler.

Fernholz’s fly‑on‑the‑wall reporting captures an industry in the midst of disruption. While NASA seeks to preserve its ambitious space program, traditional aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin scramble to adapt to new competitors, lobbyists tussle over public funds, and lawmakers try to prevent this new space race from sparking global conflict. It’s a high‑stakes marathon that Fernholz recounts with expert analysis and revealing detail.
 
Featured on NPR and PBS’s SciTech Now, and in Fast CompanyForbes, and the Wall Street Journal
1126762469
Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
This “smart analysis of the New Space sector” goes inside the rapid rise and dramatic rivalry of private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin (The New York Times Book Review).
 
For the outsize personalities staking their fortunes on spaceships, the new race to explore space could be a dead end, a lucrative opportunity—or the key to humanity’s survival. Rocket Billionaires shines a light on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as they attempt to make history, reinvent the space economy, and feed their own egos. Beyond these two towering figures, Tim Fernholz introduces a supporting cast of equally fascinating entrepreneurs, from the irrepressible British mogul Richard Branson to the satellite internet visionary Greg Wyler.

Fernholz’s fly‑on‑the‑wall reporting captures an industry in the midst of disruption. While NASA seeks to preserve its ambitious space program, traditional aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin scramble to adapt to new competitors, lobbyists tussle over public funds, and lawmakers try to prevent this new space race from sparking global conflict. It’s a high‑stakes marathon that Fernholz recounts with expert analysis and revealing detail.
 
Featured on NPR and PBS’s SciTech Now, and in Fast CompanyForbes, and the Wall Street Journal
17.99 In Stock
Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race

Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race

by Tim Fernholz
Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race

Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race

by Tim Fernholz

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Overview

This “smart analysis of the New Space sector” goes inside the rapid rise and dramatic rivalry of private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin (The New York Times Book Review).
 
For the outsize personalities staking their fortunes on spaceships, the new race to explore space could be a dead end, a lucrative opportunity—or the key to humanity’s survival. Rocket Billionaires shines a light on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as they attempt to make history, reinvent the space economy, and feed their own egos. Beyond these two towering figures, Tim Fernholz introduces a supporting cast of equally fascinating entrepreneurs, from the irrepressible British mogul Richard Branson to the satellite internet visionary Greg Wyler.

Fernholz’s fly‑on‑the‑wall reporting captures an industry in the midst of disruption. While NASA seeks to preserve its ambitious space program, traditional aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin scramble to adapt to new competitors, lobbyists tussle over public funds, and lawmakers try to prevent this new space race from sparking global conflict. It’s a high‑stakes marathon that Fernholz recounts with expert analysis and revealing detail.
 
Featured on NPR and PBS’s SciTech Now, and in Fast CompanyForbes, and the Wall Street Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781328663061
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: 06/11/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 1,328,706
File size: 44 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

TIM FERNHOLZ is a reporter at Quartz, the award-winning global news site from the Atlantic Media Company. He has been reporting on SpaceX since 2011, as well as covering the global economy at large. He has been a Knight Journalism Fellow and a fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and was a co-host of Actuality, a podcast about the new global economy co-produced by Quartz and Marketplace.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 Adventure Capitalism 1

2 The Rocket-Industrial Complex 18

3 The Rocker Monopoly 30

4 The Internet Guy 40

5 Friday Afternoon Space Club 58

6 The Tyranny Of The Rocket 72

7 Never A Straight Answer 93

8 A Method Of Reaching Extreme Altitudes 107

9 Test as We Fly 122

10 Change Versus More of the Same 139

11 Capture the Flag 159

12 Space Race 2.0 171

13 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle 195

14 Pushing the Envelope 205

15 Rocket Billionaires 221

16 Beyond Earth Orbit 236

Epilogue: A Spacefaring Civilization 252

Afterword 255

Acknowledgments 263

Notes 266

Index 279

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