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Comment: Spine creases, wear to binding and pages from reading. May contain limited notes, underlining or highlighting that does affect the text. Possible ex library copy, will have the markings and stickers associated from the library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.
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Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space Hardcover – July 31, 2007

4.0 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

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Touring the rapidly changing non-NASA community, Belfiore reports on the technology and business plans behind dreams of privately financed access to space. He profiles several companies active in this arena, including one that will be familiar to the news-following public, Scaled Composites. It launched an astronaut into space for a few minutes in 2004, inspiring enthusiasts and attracting paying customers. Just what customers will pay for seems speculative—a brief experience of weightlessness, a vacation in an orbital hotel, a voyage to the moon––so these companies are accordingly varied in their ambitions. Goals seem directly related to those of the company founders, and Belfiore's strong biographical sketches explain the founders' fascination with spaceflight, their rocketry skills (which range from accomplished to, in the case of mogul Richard Branson, nonexistent), and the hands-on work of their employees. Imparting the technical specs of engines and vehicles, Belfiore betters description with his evocation of the visionary euphoria that animates these entrepreneurial daredevils, sealing the deal for fans of space futurism. Taylor, Gilbert

About the Author

Michael Belfiore is one of only a handful of freelance journalists covering commercial spaceflight. Born in 1969—the year Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon—Belfiore has always been fascinated by space travel. He lives with his family in Woodstock, New York.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Smithsonian; 1st Edition (July 31, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061149020
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061149023
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.55 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.05 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

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Michael's book Rocketeers is the first to chronicle the birth of the commercial space age. His The Department of Mad Scientists is the first to go behind the scenes at DARPA, the Pentagon agency that gave us the Internet and many other breakthrough technologies that have changed our lives for the better.

Michael has been excited about space travel and future technology since he discovered Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo in his local public library at the age of six. In addition to writing books, he reports on what's next for major magazines and on his blog at www.michaelbelfiore.com and speaks to audiences around North America.

He lives in New York state's Hudson River Valley with his wife and two daughters.

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