Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of S) [Hardcover]

Chris Dubbs (Author), Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom (Author), Charles D. Walker (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2011 | Series: Outward Odyssey: A People's History of S

U.S.A.F. Chief of Staff 2013 Professional Reading List Selection

 

Nearly forty years passed between the Apollo moon landings, the grandest accomplishment of a government-run space program, and the Ansari X PRIZE–winning flights of SpaceShipOne, the greatest achievement of a private space program. Now, as we hover on the threshold of commercial spaceflight, authors Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom look back at how we got to this point.

Their book traces the lives of the individuals who shared the dream that private individuals and private enterprise belong in space. Realizing Tomorrow provides a behind-the-scenes look at the visionaries, the crackpots, the financial schemes, the legal wrangling, the turf battles, and—underpinning the entire drama—the overwhelming desire of ordinary people to visit outer space.
A compelling story of the pioneers of commercial spaceflight—and their efforts to open the final frontier to everyone—this book traces the path to private spaceflight even as it offers an instructive, entertaining, and cautionary note about its future.

 

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tighten your seat belt for a wonderful ride of a read that tells the incredible tale of the dedicated people who helped push the throttle forward to make private space travel reality."—Leonard David, Coalition for Space Exploration

(Leonard David Coalition for Space Exploration 20110508)

"With the conclusion of the space shuttle program impending, the topic of private spaceflight has never been timelier. . . . This far-reaching, well-illustrated history oriented toward the future of spaceflight should catch many an eye."—Colleen Mondor, Booklist

(Colleen Mondor Booklist )

“Many books have been written about the history of spaceflight, documenting the efforts to enter space ‘for all mankind.’ Realizing Tomorrow offers the first comprehensive history of what will be the future of spaceflight—‘by all mankind.’”—Robert Pearlman, editor and founder of collectSPACE.com

(Robert Pearlman 20101004)

“Brimming with fascinating details—and never-before-told stories—Realizing Tomorrow is a riveting account of the growth of commercial space. It is required reading for anyone who wants to know how a group of visionaries overcame great obstacles to pioneer the final frontier for profit.”—Douglas Messier, editor in chief of Parabolicarc.com

(Douglas Messier 20101004)

“Realizing Tomorrow is the compelling story of the pioneers of commercial spaceflight and their efforts to open up the final frontier to everyone.”—Jeff Foust, editor and publisher of the Space Review

(Jeff Foust 20101004)

“Tighten your seat belt for a wonderful ride of a read that tells the incredible tale of the dedicated people who helped push the throttle forward to make private space travel reality. Dubbs and Paat-Dahlstrom take a masterful and history-rich look at the true roots of space tourism, providing a needed course-correction for those who think off-Earth passenger travel is more giggle-factor than fact.”—Leonard David, Space Insider columnist, SPACE.com

(Leonard David 20101004)

About the Author

Chris Dubbs is the author of Space Dogs: Pioneers of Space Travel and the coauthor (with Colin Burgess) of Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom is the vice president of operations and academics at Singularity University based at NASA Ames Research Park. She is also partner and consultant for International Space Consultants. Charles D. Walker is a former crew member of Space Shuttle missions 41-D, 51-D, and 61-B.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (June 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803216106
• ISBN-13: 978-0803216105
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Badly Converted to ebook May 20, 2012

By Owen Densmore

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is for the very poor Kindle Edition.

Overall the book gets 5 stars, but the ebook format gets 0.

Ebook problems:

First of all, the illustrations are (apparently) not in the book. The TOC sez: Illustrations follow page 132. Guess what .. Kindle/mobi does not support page number, only "locations". BUT at location 1815 the pictures do indeed appear. Bookmark them to get back.

Why can't Amazon/Kindle at the least insert links for the Illustration TOC which is at location 14? This is absurd .. an ebook with no "e"!

I can go on about other obvious links that are missing .. like when the text refers to notes or other pages of the book .. naturally without a link so you can go back/forth between them and your current page .. oops, sorry .. location.

It really feels odd reading a futuristic book with an ereader and have it fail so badly.

I get most of my tech books in ebook format, usually OReilly. There you get several formats: mobi, epub, pdf and more. And they are "edited" to make the ebook functional via links. Oddly enough, their mobi (i.e. kindle) formats are far better managed than Amazon/Kindle.

I think Amazon has to do something about this, or loose out big time to other vendors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of history of private, esp. manned, spaceflight September 13, 2011

By S. J. Snyder VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Can Elon Musk send men to the moon? Can Sir Richard Branson make space tourism a (relatively) low-cost, popular venture?

Well, it helps to know the history of private spaceflight in general, and private manned spaceflight in particular. And the coauthors of this well-researched book do just that. You'll meat all the major players and inspirations of the last 40-plus years of space travel in general. You'll learn about the details of rocket engineering in a friendly, non-technical manner. And, you'll learn about the personalities of the people, from plane and rocket designer Burt Rutan, through visionary well-heeled entrepreneurs like Musk and Branson, and to space tourists like Dennis Tito.

When you finish this book, you'll be informed enough to venture your own guess as to the possibility of future success of a Musk or Branson, and the timetable for such success if they can pull it off.

Men on the moon? Highly unlikely from private ventures in the next 50 years. Too, too pricey. No way travelers will cough up the amount of money to make such a trip for a Musk to pull it off. Men on Mars? Private enterprise isn't doing that one for more than a century, if that soon. If you read this book, and see the technical difficulties involved just with traveling to a space station, you'll possibly agree. If not, you'll be prepared in your counterarguments.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Amount of Detail May 3, 2011

By Walter Rittenhouse

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

A different perspective on the space programs. Every detail of what has happened in the private sector. A must read for anyone into Aviation and/or Space Exporation.