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How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight
A New York Times bestseller!
The historic race that reawakened the promise of manned spaceflight
A Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Alone in a Spartan black cockpit, test pilot Mike Melvill rocketed toward space. He had eighty seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. He might not make it back alive. If he did, he would make history as the world’s first commercial astronaut.
The spectacle defied reason, the result of a competition dreamed up by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, whose vision for a new race to space required small teams to do what only the world’s largest governments had done before.
Peter Diamandis was the son of hardworking immigrants who wanted their science prodigy to make the family proud and become a doctor. But from the age of eight, when he watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon, his singular goal was to get to space. When he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight, Diamandis set out on one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time. If the government wouldn’t send him to space, he would create a private space flight industry himself.
In the 1990s, this idea was the stuff of science fiction. Undaunted, Diamandis found inspiration in an unlikely the golden age of aviation. He discovered that Charles Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight to win a $25,000 prize. The flight made Lindbergh the most famous man on earth and galvanized the airline industry. Why, Diamandis thought, couldn’t the same be done for space flight?
The story of the bullet-shaped SpaceShipOne, and the other teams in the hunt, is an extraordinary tale of making the impossible possible. It is driven by outsized characters—Burt Rutan, Richard Branson, John Carmack, Paul Allen—and obsessive pursuits. In the end, as Diamandis dreamed, the result wasn’t just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry and a new age.
The historic race that reawakened the promise of manned spaceflight
A Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Alone in a Spartan black cockpit, test pilot Mike Melvill rocketed toward space. He had eighty seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. He might not make it back alive. If he did, he would make history as the world’s first commercial astronaut.
The spectacle defied reason, the result of a competition dreamed up by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, whose vision for a new race to space required small teams to do what only the world’s largest governments had done before.
Peter Diamandis was the son of hardworking immigrants who wanted their science prodigy to make the family proud and become a doctor. But from the age of eight, when he watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon, his singular goal was to get to space. When he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight, Diamandis set out on one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time. If the government wouldn’t send him to space, he would create a private space flight industry himself.
In the 1990s, this idea was the stuff of science fiction. Undaunted, Diamandis found inspiration in an unlikely the golden age of aviation. He discovered that Charles Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight to win a $25,000 prize. The flight made Lindbergh the most famous man on earth and galvanized the airline industry. Why, Diamandis thought, couldn’t the same be done for space flight?
The story of the bullet-shaped SpaceShipOne, and the other teams in the hunt, is an extraordinary tale of making the impossible possible. It is driven by outsized characters—Burt Rutan, Richard Branson, John Carmack, Paul Allen—and obsessive pursuits. In the end, as Diamandis dreamed, the result wasn’t just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry and a new age.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 2016
144 people are currently reading
2228 people want to read
About the author
Julian Guthrie
14 books92 followersJulian Guthrie is a NYT best-selling author who spent 20 years as a journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle. She is drawn to improbable underdog stories that combine great human drama with game-changing innovations. Her feature writing and enterprise reporting have been nominated multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize.
Ms. Guthrie's new book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime, was published by Currency in April 2019.
This is her fourth nonfiction book. Alpha Girls shines a light on trailblazing women who were written out of history - until now. Alpha Girls is being adapted for television by Academy Award-winning producer Cathy Schulman.
Ms. Guthrie's new book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime, was published by Currency in April 2019.
This is her fourth nonfiction book. Alpha Girls shines a light on trailblazing women who were written out of history - until now. Alpha Girls is being adapted for television by Academy Award-winning producer Cathy Schulman.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
March 31, 2017
An interesting read about the characters and drama behind the Xprize, highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the present and future of commercial space travel. Almost a 4* but I wasn't a big fan of the writing style and it could easily have been 100 pages shorter.
August 17, 2016
An odyssey to encourage and promote privately financed space exploration
This is an outstanding story of a few who dreamed big and remained focused in putting a private spacecraft into the space. This was a big dream when it was first thought, but the efforts and persistence of an individual like Peter Diamandis made this dream a reality. Author Julian Guthrie has done a fascinating job of documenting everything associated with this adventure. There is suspense, drama, initial setbacks and final success in making the dream come true. This is a very engaging and highly readable story.
A brief summary of the book is as follows: In 1996, entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offered a $10-million prize (XPRIZE) to the first privately financed team that could build and fly 62 miles into space. The contest, later titled the Ansari XPRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight motivated 26 teams. The prize was finally won by the team using a spacecraft called SpaceShipOne. The prize was shared 50-50 between Burt Rutan’s Company and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. Currently this spacecraft is on display at the National Mall in Washington D.C. at Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
The first XPRIZE – the Ansari XPRIZE – was inspired by the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. Charles Lindbergh won the prize in a modified single-engine Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. There were tough obstacles in the path of this crazy idea, because even the world’s largest governments hadn’t succeeded in building reusable manned spacecraft and Peter did not have a clue how he will generate ten million dollar prize money. His friend Burt Ruttan brainstormed about the most vexing part of human space flight, the holy grail of manned missions and returning to earth successfully. The thought of presenting his ideas to Paul Allen came to him during one of the meetings with Peter Diamandis. When news broke, The First USA Bank, anticipating significant revenue from XPRIZE cards, offered $5 million of the total $10 million prize money on certain stipulations. NASA, FAA, rocket designers and aviation experts were perplexed and also enthusiastic when Diamandis announced his plan on May 18, 1996.
Chapter 27 entitled “Flirting with Calamity,” and Chapter 31 entitled “Rocketing the Redemption” describes the exciting moments in the history of private space exploration documenting the details of the success of the actual flights above the Mojave Desert in California, and subsequent call to congratulate the team by President George Bush aboard Air Force One. The book also documents interesting stories behind the other unsuccessful attempts by several teams from United States and other countries. There are four stories in particular that author discusses in detail and they themselves make fascinating stories despite their failure. They include the attempts made by John Carmack of United States, Dumitru Popescu from Romania, Pablo de Leon from Argentina, and Steve Bennett from United Kingdom.
On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded human spaceflight. On October 4, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize, by reaching 62 miles in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board and with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. Development costs were estimated to be $25 million, largely financed by Paul Allen.
The XPRIZE has created several private space exploration pioneers that include; Jim Akkerman, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin made strides in developing suborbital spacecrafts using reusable spacecrafts at a relatively low-cost. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly cargo resupply missions to International Space Station. Peter Diamandis became the founder of XPRIZE foundation and currently offering $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE for a privately owned spacecraft to land a robot on the Moon, travel 500 meters on the surface and beam the video back to earth.
This is tremendous amount of effort by a single individual who dreamed big, achieved success and now helping others to travel to space and beyond. A real fascinating story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
This is an outstanding story of a few who dreamed big and remained focused in putting a private spacecraft into the space. This was a big dream when it was first thought, but the efforts and persistence of an individual like Peter Diamandis made this dream a reality. Author Julian Guthrie has done a fascinating job of documenting everything associated with this adventure. There is suspense, drama, initial setbacks and final success in making the dream come true. This is a very engaging and highly readable story.
A brief summary of the book is as follows: In 1996, entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offered a $10-million prize (XPRIZE) to the first privately financed team that could build and fly 62 miles into space. The contest, later titled the Ansari XPRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight motivated 26 teams. The prize was finally won by the team using a spacecraft called SpaceShipOne. The prize was shared 50-50 between Burt Rutan’s Company and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. Currently this spacecraft is on display at the National Mall in Washington D.C. at Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
The first XPRIZE – the Ansari XPRIZE – was inspired by the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. Charles Lindbergh won the prize in a modified single-engine Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. There were tough obstacles in the path of this crazy idea, because even the world’s largest governments hadn’t succeeded in building reusable manned spacecraft and Peter did not have a clue how he will generate ten million dollar prize money. His friend Burt Ruttan brainstormed about the most vexing part of human space flight, the holy grail of manned missions and returning to earth successfully. The thought of presenting his ideas to Paul Allen came to him during one of the meetings with Peter Diamandis. When news broke, The First USA Bank, anticipating significant revenue from XPRIZE cards, offered $5 million of the total $10 million prize money on certain stipulations. NASA, FAA, rocket designers and aviation experts were perplexed and also enthusiastic when Diamandis announced his plan on May 18, 1996.
Chapter 27 entitled “Flirting with Calamity,” and Chapter 31 entitled “Rocketing the Redemption” describes the exciting moments in the history of private space exploration documenting the details of the success of the actual flights above the Mojave Desert in California, and subsequent call to congratulate the team by President George Bush aboard Air Force One. The book also documents interesting stories behind the other unsuccessful attempts by several teams from United States and other countries. There are four stories in particular that author discusses in detail and they themselves make fascinating stories despite their failure. They include the attempts made by John Carmack of United States, Dumitru Popescu from Romania, Pablo de Leon from Argentina, and Steve Bennett from United Kingdom.
On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded human spaceflight. On October 4, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize, by reaching 62 miles in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board and with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. Development costs were estimated to be $25 million, largely financed by Paul Allen.
The XPRIZE has created several private space exploration pioneers that include; Jim Akkerman, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin made strides in developing suborbital spacecrafts using reusable spacecrafts at a relatively low-cost. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly cargo resupply missions to International Space Station. Peter Diamandis became the founder of XPRIZE foundation and currently offering $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE for a privately owned spacecraft to land a robot on the Moon, travel 500 meters on the surface and beam the video back to earth.
This is tremendous amount of effort by a single individual who dreamed big, achieved success and now helping others to travel to space and beyond. A real fascinating story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
July 2, 2019
While this book certainly has interesting moments, most of the time it was a chore to get through. It just seems like it talks about so many different people who, in the overall scheme of things, were not all that important. I know I could not bring myself to care about them, as harsh as it sounds. The final third of the book, which mostly centers on the Spaceship One team was for me the most enjoyable and it is where the book picks up the pace again. Bottom line is: I would not recommend this book unless you want to really know every single little detail about X-Prize and you are not bothered by many names being thrown around.
October 6, 2016
I don’t have an overwhelming number of thoughts about this book. It served as part history of the X-Prize (the $10 million cash prize for the first private group to get a piloted ship into sub-orbital space flight twice within 7 days) and part biography of the founder of the prize.
I’ve always been a fan of spaceflight, but my knowledge specifically has been the history of NASA up until the beginning of the shuttle era – and a little bit about the old Soviet program up until they quit seriously attempting their own moon shot.
But shuttle era onward, not so much. The Mercury/Gemini/Apollo era astronauts were heroes of myth to me. Later on, as NASA tried to make space travel routine, well, it might have still been incredibly dangerous, but it sure felt ho hum in comparison.
That isn’t to say I’m entirely ignorant of everything that’s happened since 1981, I have followed the program. I’ve read the memoirs of shuttle era astronaut Mike Mulane, and more than I care to admit about the Challenger and Columbia disasters. I just attended a lecture on the ISS by one of its project managers (who has since moved on the ITER project) and he did a great job of selling it as perhaps one of the greatest engineering feats humanity has ever produced.
He discussed the Large Hadron Collider as a competitor for that title, but dismissed it as cheating since it was built on earth, and not in orbit.
Anyway, I’m just pointing out that I’m still a fan, I’m just not obsessively following the drama of human powered spaceflight as some people are. But with the hard to believe ambitions of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, well, it’s hard not to be a little more hopeful that I will see some human exploration of the solar system during my lifetime.
This book, it’s telling the story of people that were (and still are) super obsessed with the dreams of a human populated solar system, and their efforts to quit waiting for NASA to do it for us. These people are taking matters into their own hands.
The X-Prize, of course, started in the 90’s and, it’s hard for me to believe, was completed 12 years ago this week. Musk, Bezos, Robert Branson, Paul Allen, and a few other familiar names (like John Cormac – co-creator of the Doom video game) played a part in this story, but they were minor, it’s really about the X-Prize founder (I think his name was Peter Berg, but I listened to the audiobook, and don’t feel like looking this stuff up) and the team who assembled the winning entry.
In a word, it was great. Worth reading if this is the sort of stuff you think you’d enjoy. Tons of tidbits in there about competing entrants that battled some incredible hurdles to get as far as they did.
I’ve always been a fan of spaceflight, but my knowledge specifically has been the history of NASA up until the beginning of the shuttle era – and a little bit about the old Soviet program up until they quit seriously attempting their own moon shot.
But shuttle era onward, not so much. The Mercury/Gemini/Apollo era astronauts were heroes of myth to me. Later on, as NASA tried to make space travel routine, well, it might have still been incredibly dangerous, but it sure felt ho hum in comparison.
That isn’t to say I’m entirely ignorant of everything that’s happened since 1981, I have followed the program. I’ve read the memoirs of shuttle era astronaut Mike Mulane, and more than I care to admit about the Challenger and Columbia disasters. I just attended a lecture on the ISS by one of its project managers (who has since moved on the ITER project) and he did a great job of selling it as perhaps one of the greatest engineering feats humanity has ever produced.
He discussed the Large Hadron Collider as a competitor for that title, but dismissed it as cheating since it was built on earth, and not in orbit.
Anyway, I’m just pointing out that I’m still a fan, I’m just not obsessively following the drama of human powered spaceflight as some people are. But with the hard to believe ambitions of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, well, it’s hard not to be a little more hopeful that I will see some human exploration of the solar system during my lifetime.
This book, it’s telling the story of people that were (and still are) super obsessed with the dreams of a human populated solar system, and their efforts to quit waiting for NASA to do it for us. These people are taking matters into their own hands.
The X-Prize, of course, started in the 90’s and, it’s hard for me to believe, was completed 12 years ago this week. Musk, Bezos, Robert Branson, Paul Allen, and a few other familiar names (like John Cormac – co-creator of the Doom video game) played a part in this story, but they were minor, it’s really about the X-Prize founder (I think his name was Peter Berg, but I listened to the audiobook, and don’t feel like looking this stuff up) and the team who assembled the winning entry.
In a word, it was great. Worth reading if this is the sort of stuff you think you’d enjoy. Tons of tidbits in there about competing entrants that battled some incredible hurdles to get as far as they did.
February 23, 2024
Julian Guthrie’s “How to Make a Spaceship” was not a book that I expected to read. I do enjoy books about technology, but generally my focus is on media technologies or the role of tech in dystopian novels. Although I am a Trekkie and a fan of Doctor Who, I don’t take initiative to follow any updates on the space industry. Someone gave me this book for free so that is why I chose to read it.
Guthrie’s writing has awoken a newfound interest in me for space travel and a better understanding of privately owned space corporations. It was inspiring reading about how an individual’s passions and dreams could lead him to inspire those around him. It was also super cool learning about the airplane designing genius Burt Rutan. This is an incredibly motivational and well-written book. I highly recommend adding this to your “Want to Reads.”
Guthrie’s writing has awoken a newfound interest in me for space travel and a better understanding of privately owned space corporations. It was inspiring reading about how an individual’s passions and dreams could lead him to inspire those around him. It was also super cool learning about the airplane designing genius Burt Rutan. This is an incredibly motivational and well-written book. I highly recommend adding this to your “Want to Reads.”
August 27, 2023
Dlaczego ktoś wymyślił przypisy zajmujące polowe kartki albo ciągnące się na kolejna stronę…
March 9, 2017
Я поражен упорством и целеустремленностью людей, о которых написана эта книга! Рекомендую читать всем - настолько захватывающее чтение, что нельзя оторваться.
February 13, 2019
This book gave me all sorts of information I didn't have both about the early space program I followed SO avidly, but gave details about what happened to cause the US to go from putting men on the moon to zilch... This also gave good aviation milestone history & described how the XPrize was won. While things have moved slower than many of us want, we now have private enterprise making regular trips to the ISS & hopefully soon adding manned missions to the Dragon capsules!
September 30, 2017
Only 4 stars because I thought the writing could have been a bit tighter. The story, however, is awesome!
Read
July 17, 2023DNF @51%
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This is too tedious and way too long! Maybe I'll come back to it sometime, but I'm not interested in spending anymore time on it right now.
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This is too tedious and way too long! Maybe I'll come back to it sometime, but I'm not interested in spending anymore time on it right now.
May 20, 2025
I've never really had an interest in going to space and never really understood people who did. But the author has managed to capture the wonderful, dreaming, persevering spirit than those who do. What an entertaining and inspiring read!
July 25, 2022
Entertaining and informative. A surprisingly interesting part of the book is the description of how X-Prize used a one-off insurance policy to finance their project.
April 4, 2025
This history of the X-Prize and how one man used it to kick-start commercial space flight. I found this endlessly fascinating as the author takes us through the this interesting period of aerospace in an engaging narrative beginning with the Wright brothers, pausing at Lindburg's trans-Atlantic flight, and continuing with the efforts of many around the world to go to space without government assistance. It left me believing even more than I already do that space is attainable!
Addendum: Goodreads has TWO reads for this and I'm not sure why. Unless...I noticed some overlap between this book and "The Space Barons," although I recall the latter focusing more on the likes of Musk and Bezos and the former on Peter and his X-Prize. Most recently, I "read" the audiobook.
Addendum: Goodreads has TWO reads for this and I'm not sure why. Unless...I noticed some overlap between this book and "The Space Barons," although I recall the latter focusing more on the likes of Musk and Bezos and the former on Peter and his X-Prize. Most recently, I "read" the audiobook.
October 22, 2016
This is like a 400+ page book that easily could have been 600 or so - why ? For starters, the font size was like 10. Not too many books with that font size and size 12 should be the norm. Too much detail, I don't need to know all about the major players, etc. Just condense it so that I can chew and digest this novel instead of regurgitating it out. Never got finished reading this, just briefly read some of the chapters that I was interested in. Too long. Too boring. My opinion.
August 23, 2016
I won this book.
The book was really fascinating. Guthrie does a good job of describing everything from the beginning of space travel and NASA, all the way up to where we are today - missions and crafts independent from the Government. If you know a space nut, go buy this book for them. Overall a really neat read.
The book was really fascinating. Guthrie does a good job of describing everything from the beginning of space travel and NASA, all the way up to where we are today - missions and crafts independent from the Government. If you know a space nut, go buy this book for them. Overall a really neat read.
June 3, 2017
A sometimes overly-detailed recounting of the first X-Prize and the people behind it. It really delivers in the last third of the book where Guthrie writes about the historic SpaceShipOne flights. I wrote about it here: https://www.strategy-business.com/art...
July 20, 2022
Is it possible to get to space without the help of the United States government? That is the question award-winning journalist Julian Guthrie sets out to answer in “How to Make a Spaceship.” Revolutionary aircraft designer Burt Rutan proved orbiting the earth from an average altitude of 11,000 feet, at least, was possible. Rutan’s twin-boom, Model 76 Voyager aircraft lifted off from Edwards Airforce Base in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986. More than nine days later, Rutan’s brother, Dick and co-pilot Jeana Yeager touched down on the same runway after flying around the world without stopping or refueling. In terms of advancing private space travel, the Voyager flight “was a test of flying skill, physical endurance and breakthrough design.” It is interesting to note that this historic achievement ended the same year that began with the loss of the space shuttle Challenger. On January 28, 1986, the ill-fated spacecraft “disintegrated seventy-three seconds after liftoff . . . killing the seven astronauts . . . on board.”
Totally independent of NASA’s multi-billion-dollar efforts to put men on the moon, or into international space stations, author Julian Guthrie here documents private citizen’s efforts to award a ten-million-dollar prize “to the first non-governmental team that could build and fly a three-person rocket to the (edge) of space twice within two weeks.” In these pages, the reader will meet some of the men who competed for that prize, including Texas multimillionaire and computer game creator John Carmack, Romanian aerospace engineer Dumitru Popescu, rocket enthusiast Pablo de Leon in Buenos Aires and Colgate laboratory technician Steve Bennett in Manchester, England.
For this reviewer, Guthrie weaves an equally fascinating story within the story of this private race to space. In May of 2002, Erik Lindbergh honored the 75th anniversary of his grandfather’s historic flight by retracing Charles’ flight across the Atlantic, using a small, single-engine Lancair Columbia 300, dubbed “The New Spirit of St. Louis,” at a cost of $289,000. Guthrie devotes at least two full chapters to Lindbergh’s efforts to duplicate his grandfather’s 1927 groundbreaking feat. While the Lindbergh aviation adventure seemed to have very little to do with making spaceships, it would be well worth a separate book of its own.
Spoiler alert. To cut right to the chase, Guthrie details the end of the “epic race and the birth of private spaceflight” with the successful launch in October of 2004 of the Burt Rutan-designed SpaceShipOne. During testing of the $25 million dollar spacecraft, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and Mach 3, the first privately funded crewed spacecraft to exceed an altitude of one hundred kilometers and the first privately funded reusable crewed spacecraft.
During the celebration on that historic October day, several of the contenders for the $10 million dollar prize were on hand. Among those also-rans was Pablo de Leon who described SpaceShipOne’s achievement as marking “the end of the government’s monopoly over manned launch.” Space enthusiast Peter Diamandis told the celebrating crowd, “We are at the birth of a new era---the personal spaceflight revolution.” Since those prophetical speeches in the Mojave Desert, multimillionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have proven de Leon and Diamandis’ predictions were right on the money. For example, Musk’s SpaceX company “went on to become the first private company to send a rocket to orbit, the first private company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and the first private company to land an orbiter back on the launchpad.”
Author Ken Auletta said it best. Julian Guthrie’s “vivid writing places readers right there . . . into the cockpit of the first civilian spacecraft to rocket into outer space. With the flair of a novelist and the precision of a fine journalist, (Guthrie) takes (her) readers not just into space but into the hearts and minds of the adventurers who dare go where NASA no longer does.” Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!
Totally independent of NASA’s multi-billion-dollar efforts to put men on the moon, or into international space stations, author Julian Guthrie here documents private citizen’s efforts to award a ten-million-dollar prize “to the first non-governmental team that could build and fly a three-person rocket to the (edge) of space twice within two weeks.” In these pages, the reader will meet some of the men who competed for that prize, including Texas multimillionaire and computer game creator John Carmack, Romanian aerospace engineer Dumitru Popescu, rocket enthusiast Pablo de Leon in Buenos Aires and Colgate laboratory technician Steve Bennett in Manchester, England.
For this reviewer, Guthrie weaves an equally fascinating story within the story of this private race to space. In May of 2002, Erik Lindbergh honored the 75th anniversary of his grandfather’s historic flight by retracing Charles’ flight across the Atlantic, using a small, single-engine Lancair Columbia 300, dubbed “The New Spirit of St. Louis,” at a cost of $289,000. Guthrie devotes at least two full chapters to Lindbergh’s efforts to duplicate his grandfather’s 1927 groundbreaking feat. While the Lindbergh aviation adventure seemed to have very little to do with making spaceships, it would be well worth a separate book of its own.
Spoiler alert. To cut right to the chase, Guthrie details the end of the “epic race and the birth of private spaceflight” with the successful launch in October of 2004 of the Burt Rutan-designed SpaceShipOne. During testing of the $25 million dollar spacecraft, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and Mach 3, the first privately funded crewed spacecraft to exceed an altitude of one hundred kilometers and the first privately funded reusable crewed spacecraft.
During the celebration on that historic October day, several of the contenders for the $10 million dollar prize were on hand. Among those also-rans was Pablo de Leon who described SpaceShipOne’s achievement as marking “the end of the government’s monopoly over manned launch.” Space enthusiast Peter Diamandis told the celebrating crowd, “We are at the birth of a new era---the personal spaceflight revolution.” Since those prophetical speeches in the Mojave Desert, multimillionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have proven de Leon and Diamandis’ predictions were right on the money. For example, Musk’s SpaceX company “went on to become the first private company to send a rocket to orbit, the first private company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and the first private company to land an orbiter back on the launchpad.”
Author Ken Auletta said it best. Julian Guthrie’s “vivid writing places readers right there . . . into the cockpit of the first civilian spacecraft to rocket into outer space. With the flair of a novelist and the precision of a fine journalist, (Guthrie) takes (her) readers not just into space but into the hearts and minds of the adventurers who dare go where NASA no longer does.” Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!
August 8, 2020
How to Make a Spaceship is a comprehensive and rigorous brick of a book. It's massive - as massive as the victory that Peter Diamandis, Burt Rutan et al achieved with the launch of SpaceShipOne. As other reviewers note, it's a long book. I frequently looked at my percentage completed (reading on Kobo) and was shocked at how little progress I'd made, despite reading for ages. It doesn't always feel rewarding - especially in the middle third of the book. It opens with hope and momentum, muddies and bogs down in the middle, and ends in a sprint finish. It really is a story of ambition and effort and ingenuity... but.
Two things kept bothering me the entire way through the book, and they felt like unselfconscious oversights on the parts of the author and editor.
First, despite the staggering volume of research that clearly went into the book, I often felt like I (a fairly casual if enthusiastic follower of space stuff) knew more than the author. Explanations and footnotes felt like Guthrie doing his best to write to a very general audience without quite understanding what it was he was explaining. The result is frequently superficial or, alternately, so detailed and technical that it feels like a subject-matter expert's notes were included without any editing or interpretation. This seesawing can occur more than once within a single page, and I often felt a sort of level-of-detail whiplash.
Second, and more damning, Guthrie makes Diamandis and co.'s philosophies quite clear from the jump but utterly fails to engage with them in a meaningful way. Diamandis is a libertarian and an objectivist - clearly and enthusiastically so. The X Prize organizers and competitors all share this general malaise about the government and an opinion that the government is incapable of pushing the limits of the final frontier. These claims are repeated over and over, uncritically and without any kind of engagement from Guthrie. Diamandis and the others (at times including the likes of an early-in-his-career Elon Musk) never justify their beliefs - they just continue to repeat it over and over. Guthrie never endorses this position, but he never presents any challenge to it or critique of it. The eventual success of the project allows the characters to justify their takes. But the whole book is an exercise in Diamandis and company building notoriety on the back of hustle, yes, but also their privilege, luck, and repeated infusions of venture capital, to say nothing of generations of public domain research done by NASA and other government agencies. It's a little frustrating to have Guthrie present these viewpoints without challenge.
I know that's not the point of the book. The focus appears to be documentary, not editorial. But the characters celebrate their achievements as a victory for their philosophy, and Guthrie by not presenting any contrasting views allows it.
To be clear - this doesn't make it a bad book. But Diamandis' philosophy, such as it is, is razor-thin and doesn't hold up to any kind of scrutiny, and it's bizarre to have such a weak position repeatedly reinforced throughout the book.
How to Make a Spaceship is relentlessly detailed, exhaustively researched, and juggles more viewpoint characters than most other books I've read. It is a slog at times. It is stylistically a little bland. It has its frustrations. But it is effective in telling a story about ambition fulfilled.
Two things kept bothering me the entire way through the book, and they felt like unselfconscious oversights on the parts of the author and editor.
First, despite the staggering volume of research that clearly went into the book, I often felt like I (a fairly casual if enthusiastic follower of space stuff) knew more than the author. Explanations and footnotes felt like Guthrie doing his best to write to a very general audience without quite understanding what it was he was explaining. The result is frequently superficial or, alternately, so detailed and technical that it feels like a subject-matter expert's notes were included without any editing or interpretation. This seesawing can occur more than once within a single page, and I often felt a sort of level-of-detail whiplash.
Second, and more damning, Guthrie makes Diamandis and co.'s philosophies quite clear from the jump but utterly fails to engage with them in a meaningful way. Diamandis is a libertarian and an objectivist - clearly and enthusiastically so. The X Prize organizers and competitors all share this general malaise about the government and an opinion that the government is incapable of pushing the limits of the final frontier. These claims are repeated over and over, uncritically and without any kind of engagement from Guthrie. Diamandis and the others (at times including the likes of an early-in-his-career Elon Musk) never justify their beliefs - they just continue to repeat it over and over. Guthrie never endorses this position, but he never presents any challenge to it or critique of it. The eventual success of the project allows the characters to justify their takes. But the whole book is an exercise in Diamandis and company building notoriety on the back of hustle, yes, but also their privilege, luck, and repeated infusions of venture capital, to say nothing of generations of public domain research done by NASA and other government agencies. It's a little frustrating to have Guthrie present these viewpoints without challenge.
I know that's not the point of the book. The focus appears to be documentary, not editorial. But the characters celebrate their achievements as a victory for their philosophy, and Guthrie by not presenting any contrasting views allows it.
To be clear - this doesn't make it a bad book. But Diamandis' philosophy, such as it is, is razor-thin and doesn't hold up to any kind of scrutiny, and it's bizarre to have such a weak position repeatedly reinforced throughout the book.
How to Make a Spaceship is relentlessly detailed, exhaustively researched, and juggles more viewpoint characters than most other books I've read. It is a slog at times. It is stylistically a little bland. It has its frustrations. But it is effective in telling a story about ambition fulfilled.
September 17, 2019
Honestly I wish I could give this book 3 and 1/2 stars.
Please don't misunderstand me, this is a good book although the first 1/3 of it is a bit slow. We get to meet the genius that is Peter Diamandis. He holds two degrees from MIT and a Medical Degree from Yale (or was it Harvard?).
We get to met the brilliant Burt Rutan, who designed the eventual X-Prize winning SpaceShip One and has, at least when this book was published, something like six or seven airplanes that he designed hanging in the Aerospace Museum in Washington. These are highly driven and highly capable individuals that we are talking about.
However neither of them really come to life. I know this is not an autobiography but I would have like to have more about what makes them tick, what drives them, what motivates them.
Peter comes off as brilliant but his dogged drive and determination also makes him one dimensional and boring to be honest. At times he seems like a selfless little prick to me.
Burt Rutan, whose name I never heard of but did some research on is as interesting as he is brilliant and his questing mind. You want to read more and no more about him and his crazy crew of misfit engineers and scientists. I worked for an engineering firm for years and our attitude was, "let's break it and rebuild it." I think Rutan would have loved to have worked there.
While the book is primary about these two, and the difficulties they faced in bringing about the world's first commercial spacecraft I would have loved to have learned more about some of the side stories in this history book.
1) Steve Bennett was the first of the X-prize teams to actually lunch a rocket. He was also a technician with Colgate in England for years. The fact that he managed to build a rocket without much experience in aerospace, launch it successfully and without the backing of some really rich people is an amazing story in it's own right.
2) Dumitru Popescu and his team also launched a rocket while working in Romania. At one time, their welder had to close his eyes while welding together the equipment. The young man had the Romanian government working against him at times and managed to so something that should have been impossible.
3) Argentinian Pablo de Leon already had some experience in building space suits but only a passing knowledge of rockets. Again, he was able to go against the grain and do some remarkable things. Sadly however, his rocket blew up.
It's these stories that I wish I would have learned more about, and how they overcame some technical issues.
Sometimes the simplicity of the solutions is laughable, but it does work. It also shows the dangers of overthinking a problem. Case in point, NASA spent millions in the 1960's to develop a pen that could write in any position. The Russians used pencils.
The story does pick up towards the middle of the book as Rutan and his team close in on the problems and begin to mount a serious challenge to the X-prize. Meanwhile, Peter D doesn't even have the funding in place and scrambles to obtain it.
While his doggedness and determination so finally pay off, I could not help why it took him so long to get there.
So, 3.5 stars. It's an inspiring story, but lacks some elements that would have made it better then what it was.
Please don't misunderstand me, this is a good book although the first 1/3 of it is a bit slow. We get to meet the genius that is Peter Diamandis. He holds two degrees from MIT and a Medical Degree from Yale (or was it Harvard?).
We get to met the brilliant Burt Rutan, who designed the eventual X-Prize winning SpaceShip One and has, at least when this book was published, something like six or seven airplanes that he designed hanging in the Aerospace Museum in Washington. These are highly driven and highly capable individuals that we are talking about.
However neither of them really come to life. I know this is not an autobiography but I would have like to have more about what makes them tick, what drives them, what motivates them.
Peter comes off as brilliant but his dogged drive and determination also makes him one dimensional and boring to be honest. At times he seems like a selfless little prick to me.
Burt Rutan, whose name I never heard of but did some research on is as interesting as he is brilliant and his questing mind. You want to read more and no more about him and his crazy crew of misfit engineers and scientists. I worked for an engineering firm for years and our attitude was, "let's break it and rebuild it." I think Rutan would have loved to have worked there.
While the book is primary about these two, and the difficulties they faced in bringing about the world's first commercial spacecraft I would have loved to have learned more about some of the side stories in this history book.
1) Steve Bennett was the first of the X-prize teams to actually lunch a rocket. He was also a technician with Colgate in England for years. The fact that he managed to build a rocket without much experience in aerospace, launch it successfully and without the backing of some really rich people is an amazing story in it's own right.
2) Dumitru Popescu and his team also launched a rocket while working in Romania. At one time, their welder had to close his eyes while welding together the equipment. The young man had the Romanian government working against him at times and managed to so something that should have been impossible.
3) Argentinian Pablo de Leon already had some experience in building space suits but only a passing knowledge of rockets. Again, he was able to go against the grain and do some remarkable things. Sadly however, his rocket blew up.
It's these stories that I wish I would have learned more about, and how they overcame some technical issues.
Sometimes the simplicity of the solutions is laughable, but it does work. It also shows the dangers of overthinking a problem. Case in point, NASA spent millions in the 1960's to develop a pen that could write in any position. The Russians used pencils.
The story does pick up towards the middle of the book as Rutan and his team close in on the problems and begin to mount a serious challenge to the X-prize. Meanwhile, Peter D doesn't even have the funding in place and scrambles to obtain it.
While his doggedness and determination so finally pay off, I could not help why it took him so long to get there.
So, 3.5 stars. It's an inspiring story, but lacks some elements that would have made it better then what it was.
October 17, 2017
How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race and the Birth of Private Space Flight (2016) by Julian Guthrie is all about the creation of the X-Prize, the groups that entered, the people involved and the group who won.
Peter Diamandis established Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) while studying molecular genetics at MIT. He then went to Harvard Medical School to get an MD but still pursed his space dreams. He paused his medical studies to get a Master's in Aeronautics then finished his medical degree but then started to pursue his space dreams full time. In 1994 Diamandis started the X-Prize Foundation after reading The Spirit of St Louis. The X-Prize set up a prize of $10 M for the first company to make repeated journeys into space. He then spent years chasing funding and pushing the idea.
He met members of the Lindbergh family including Eric, the grandson of Charles Lindbergh who overcame early onset arthritis to reply his grandfather's famous flight. This flight also helped foster interest and funding for the X-Prize.
Burt Rutan, the legendary aircraft designer and founder of Scaled Composites became interested in the prize and with funding from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen started developing a craft.
Other competitors included John Carmack, the lead programmer for ID Software who created Doom & Quake and various competitors from the UK, Argentina and Romania.
It's a good story, but the book doesn't really hang together that well as narrative non-fiction. It's about a third too long. There are also a few too many characters and the book meanders a bit.
Still, the fundamental story is interesting and it's remarkable how Diamandis created a prize that really has helped kick start new efforts into space. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were both attracted to the prize and it has helped them create their own space efforts. We still don't quite have regular space tourism, but with SpaceX in particular it seems that new impetus has been given to new efforts into space and the X-Prize and SEDS seem to have really helped give this a push.
Peter Diamandis established Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) while studying molecular genetics at MIT. He then went to Harvard Medical School to get an MD but still pursed his space dreams. He paused his medical studies to get a Master's in Aeronautics then finished his medical degree but then started to pursue his space dreams full time. In 1994 Diamandis started the X-Prize Foundation after reading The Spirit of St Louis. The X-Prize set up a prize of $10 M for the first company to make repeated journeys into space. He then spent years chasing funding and pushing the idea.
He met members of the Lindbergh family including Eric, the grandson of Charles Lindbergh who overcame early onset arthritis to reply his grandfather's famous flight. This flight also helped foster interest and funding for the X-Prize.
Burt Rutan, the legendary aircraft designer and founder of Scaled Composites became interested in the prize and with funding from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen started developing a craft.
Other competitors included John Carmack, the lead programmer for ID Software who created Doom & Quake and various competitors from the UK, Argentina and Romania.
It's a good story, but the book doesn't really hang together that well as narrative non-fiction. It's about a third too long. There are also a few too many characters and the book meanders a bit.
Still, the fundamental story is interesting and it's remarkable how Diamandis created a prize that really has helped kick start new efforts into space. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were both attracted to the prize and it has helped them create their own space efforts. We still don't quite have regular space tourism, but with SpaceX in particular it seems that new impetus has been given to new efforts into space and the X-Prize and SEDS seem to have really helped give this a push.
July 13, 2017
I picked up this book because of the Lindbergh family connection. Erik and Morgan Lindbergh, grandsons of Charles, became involved in the X Prize after the founder (and star of this book, Peter Diamandis) was inspired by reading Lindbergh's autobiography, The Spirit of St. Louis. It was a contest that had inspired Lindbergh to attempt his historic transatlantic flight and Diamandis realized this would also be a great way to inspire innovation in space flight.
There were so many other interesting profiles of people who were involved in the X Prize, from Diamandis himself to the men who designed the space crafts to the pilots who flew them. I would consider recommending it for a book group because it was enjoyable narrative non-fiction (the audiobook narrator is also great) and there are some interesting topics that would be ripe for discussion including this idea that NASA was no longer meeting the expectations of so many people who wanted innovations in space travel. There was a lot of discussion of Diamandis' love for Ayn Rand and how the X Prize inspired people to build these spaceships without the help of the government. I have read some reviews of people who were put off by that and heard people complain that the X Prize was just for the ultra rich. I myself have a hard time with it because I'm not much of a space geek. The book even mentions that even Erik Lindbergh wondered if the $10 million prize could better be spent on more domestic issues. But the answer to that was that seeing the Earth from space changes people's perspectives about our beloved planet and that is an important enough benefit to mankind. Still, the government and private enterprise feed into each other. None of the spaceships were being built without technology that had been created without initial money from the government but nor does the government do anything without the benefit of private enterprise. Even at the end of the book we saw that the X Prize was working with NASA. We need each other. Do we need space travel? Someone still needs to convince me of that.
There were so many other interesting profiles of people who were involved in the X Prize, from Diamandis himself to the men who designed the space crafts to the pilots who flew them. I would consider recommending it for a book group because it was enjoyable narrative non-fiction (the audiobook narrator is also great) and there are some interesting topics that would be ripe for discussion including this idea that NASA was no longer meeting the expectations of so many people who wanted innovations in space travel. There was a lot of discussion of Diamandis' love for Ayn Rand and how the X Prize inspired people to build these spaceships without the help of the government. I have read some reviews of people who were put off by that and heard people complain that the X Prize was just for the ultra rich. I myself have a hard time with it because I'm not much of a space geek. The book even mentions that even Erik Lindbergh wondered if the $10 million prize could better be spent on more domestic issues. But the answer to that was that seeing the Earth from space changes people's perspectives about our beloved planet and that is an important enough benefit to mankind. Still, the government and private enterprise feed into each other. None of the spaceships were being built without technology that had been created without initial money from the government but nor does the government do anything without the benefit of private enterprise. Even at the end of the book we saw that the X Prize was working with NASA. We need each other. Do we need space travel? Someone still needs to convince me of that.
May 27, 2021
This took me a while to get through for some reason even though the topic is very interesting and Burt Rutan has been a hero of mine. I was expecting the story of how SpaceShipOne was built and the technical details. The first part of the book was about the Peter Diamandias and how he came to create the XPrize foundation and his motivations, this was followed by a heart warming story of Eric Lindbergh and how he ended up following on the footsteps of his grandfather Eric Lindbergh and flew solo from NY to Paris to support XPrize. It’s really great, and I learned a lot of things along the way. If anything, this book has motivated me to read Charles Lindbergh’s book “Spirit of St. Louis” if nothing to get inspired to do epic feats.
However, after all this is when I got to Burt Rutan and to some part what John Carmack was doing too at Armadillo Aerospace during the same time. There are some really incredible anecdotes here. I really enjoyed the story and the struggles between the pilots at Scaled Composites on who was going to be the first pilot. This is presented more from the perspective of their second/backup pilot Brian Binne than Mark Melville but it’s really fascinating. The author really knows how to tell the underdog story.
At the end of the day this book is about the humans behind XPrize, Scaled Composites, and all the companies and teams in between that led to the very first XPrize flight and while it could feel a trudge to go through the book, it’s nonetheless worthwhile for a space nerd.
However, after all this is when I got to Burt Rutan and to some part what John Carmack was doing too at Armadillo Aerospace during the same time. There are some really incredible anecdotes here. I really enjoyed the story and the struggles between the pilots at Scaled Composites on who was going to be the first pilot. This is presented more from the perspective of their second/backup pilot Brian Binne than Mark Melville but it’s really fascinating. The author really knows how to tell the underdog story.
At the end of the day this book is about the humans behind XPrize, Scaled Composites, and all the companies and teams in between that led to the very first XPrize flight and while it could feel a trudge to go through the book, it’s nonetheless worthwhile for a space nerd.
February 4, 2021
Growing up hearing about the X-prize, I remember thinking how awesome it was that someone had set up such a thing. Like so many people in the decades since the moon landings, I've always wished we would reinvest in human space flight and all the possibilities that it offers, and the fact that someone could spur that exact kind of investment through making a prize like this seemed like an awesome idea. The amazing dawn of commercial human space flight that we're now seeing all started to bloom inside the teams that were working to win the X prize.
So, given all that, I was really excited to read a book about how it happened, and this one did not disappoint. A deep look at the full amazing saga of the person who came up with the idea of the X prize, and then fought for years and years to make it a reality. Inspired by the aviation prizes of the early 1900s, such as the one that launched Charles Lindbergh's historic flight, Peter Diamandis dreamed of using a similar prize to spur investment and innovation in commercial spaceflight, and this book tells the amazing story of how he pulled it off.
That of course is just the beginning. The book also does a great job at telling the story of how the X prize was won. At times it felt like this book got a bit into the weeds of details that did not seem germane, but these side stories always turned out to come back and play a crucial role in the main narrative later. A great look at an amazing human dream and achievement.
So, given all that, I was really excited to read a book about how it happened, and this one did not disappoint. A deep look at the full amazing saga of the person who came up with the idea of the X prize, and then fought for years and years to make it a reality. Inspired by the aviation prizes of the early 1900s, such as the one that launched Charles Lindbergh's historic flight, Peter Diamandis dreamed of using a similar prize to spur investment and innovation in commercial spaceflight, and this book tells the amazing story of how he pulled it off.
That of course is just the beginning. The book also does a great job at telling the story of how the X prize was won. At times it felt like this book got a bit into the weeds of details that did not seem germane, but these side stories always turned out to come back and play a crucial role in the main narrative later. A great look at an amazing human dream and achievement.
August 12, 2018
Good, although I feel it would have been better with a tighter focus on certain areas.
The best parts for me were those about Burt Rutan and the Scaled Composites team; this comprises most of the final third of the book, and several chapters earlier on. Occasional chapters on other
competitors for the XPrize in the first two thirds are also decemt, although we never get any insight as to how serious or viable their approaches were.
The Peter Diamandis stuff - at least every other chapter in the first two thirds, and a few in the final third of the book - is essentially his biography from boyhood, and could have been trimmed down. There are also a handful of chapters on a member of the Lindbergh dynasty, which seem pretty superfluous to me, although that could well be because I'm a Brit, and Charles Lindbergh isn't really a resonant figure here.
In conclusion, I do think that this a book worth reading. That said, it hasn't done anything to dispel my personal suspicion that, despite the cleverness of the SpaceshipOne design, suborbital vehicles are likely to be a bit of a dead end in the overall scheme of things, and that Musk/SpaceX and Bezos/Blue Origin - both of whom have a small amount of coverage here - are more likely to represent a meaningful "birth of private space flight".
The best parts for me were those about Burt Rutan and the Scaled Composites team; this comprises most of the final third of the book, and several chapters earlier on. Occasional chapters on other
competitors for the XPrize in the first two thirds are also decemt, although we never get any insight as to how serious or viable their approaches were.
The Peter Diamandis stuff - at least every other chapter in the first two thirds, and a few in the final third of the book - is essentially his biography from boyhood, and could have been trimmed down. There are also a handful of chapters on a member of the Lindbergh dynasty, which seem pretty superfluous to me, although that could well be because I'm a Brit, and Charles Lindbergh isn't really a resonant figure here.
In conclusion, I do think that this a book worth reading. That said, it hasn't done anything to dispel my personal suspicion that, despite the cleverness of the SpaceshipOne design, suborbital vehicles are likely to be a bit of a dead end in the overall scheme of things, and that Musk/SpaceX and Bezos/Blue Origin - both of whom have a small amount of coverage here - are more likely to represent a meaningful "birth of private space flight".
April 2, 2018
Genre: Nonfiction
Type: Biography
Part of a series: Yes/ No
Reading level: High School or Mature
Grade: 10th grade
Synopsis: The book follows many different people starting from Peter Diamandis reaching towards their dreams of space exploration. Peter Diamandis had a long time dream of being an astronaut but realized that NASA wasn't acting upon the budget they were given and he would have to get to space without their help. He got in touch with many other innovative engineers and many historical figures which eventually helped him start a competition for a ten-million dollar prize for getting the first private spacecraft up in outer space.
Recommendation: Out of all the nonfiction, or even fiction, books I have read, this is my favorite. Since I was very young I have wanted to be a aerospace engineer and had the same dreams as Peter had. I had started doubting my dream but after reading this book, it encouraged me to stick with my dream. Overall, this book is very inspiring and is well written. The cover matched the book since it had the overall result of the book, SpaceShipOne.
Type: Biography
Part of a series: Yes/ No
Reading level: High School or Mature
Grade: 10th grade
Synopsis: The book follows many different people starting from Peter Diamandis reaching towards their dreams of space exploration. Peter Diamandis had a long time dream of being an astronaut but realized that NASA wasn't acting upon the budget they were given and he would have to get to space without their help. He got in touch with many other innovative engineers and many historical figures which eventually helped him start a competition for a ten-million dollar prize for getting the first private spacecraft up in outer space.
Recommendation: Out of all the nonfiction, or even fiction, books I have read, this is my favorite. Since I was very young I have wanted to be a aerospace engineer and had the same dreams as Peter had. I had started doubting my dream but after reading this book, it encouraged me to stick with my dream. Overall, this book is very inspiring and is well written. The cover matched the book since it had the overall result of the book, SpaceShipOne.
February 13, 2019
Julian Guthrie has put together the story of the Ansari XPrize based on the host of interviews he had with the people involved in it, either as organizers or as competitors. The story is well told and well paced. I did not find it dull at any moment in time. It even managed to convey emotions well, for example when describing the scenes when the pilots would say their goodbyes to the loved ones before a test flight.
It was also interesting to briefly see what other competitors were doing in other corners of the world. The part of the book dedicated to the other teams is adequate but it does not really make you feel that there was any competition. As one of the people involved in the project said, only 1 team seemed to be adequately funded -
Good read, definitely recommended to fans of space exploration and its brief history.
It was also interesting to briefly see what other competitors were doing in other corners of the world. The part of the book dedicated to the other teams is adequate but it does not really make you feel that there was any competition. As one of the people involved in the project said, only 1 team seemed to be adequately funded -
Good read, definitely recommended to fans of space exploration and its brief history.
September 11, 2025
Really good. A little long.
I remember seeing the TV special on the cable channel... maybe the Discovery Channel or the Science Channel or one of those. I loved it, but that TV special focused mostly on Burt Rutan, the experimental airplane designer and the test pilots Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie. But this book begins with the biography of the guy who established the XPrize, Peter Diamandis and Charles Lindbergh's grandson, Erik Lindbergh and how he conquered his medical problems.
I appreciated the details, but the book could have been tightened up some.
I'd love reading this book again, but I'll probably skip parts.
I remember seeing the TV special on the cable channel... maybe the Discovery Channel or the Science Channel or one of those. I loved it, but that TV special focused mostly on Burt Rutan, the experimental airplane designer and the test pilots Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie. But this book begins with the biography of the guy who established the XPrize, Peter Diamandis and Charles Lindbergh's grandson, Erik Lindbergh and how he conquered his medical problems.
I appreciated the details, but the book could have been tightened up some.
I'd love reading this book again, but I'll probably skip parts.
April 18, 2018
A riveting journey through what it might take to successfully bet against every odd there is. I believe it is one of the rarest chances there are to be purviewed and be able to document people and events that are in true sense revolutionary. Achieving private space flight is the point and marker of the beginning of a possible realization of far-distance exploration and colonization - economics in my opinion was the last true barrier to opening up space and that now has been breached. Not to take away from the focus of the book the fascinating story of the people how made it; their oddity, resolve, patience are only some of the characteristics weaved into a captivating story. In every sense of the word the characters involved are the epitome of pioneering.
September 22, 2019
Julian wrote a nice book about the Asari X-Prize and separately the SpaceShipOne effort led by Burt Rutan here. Took me a couple of months to make it thru the book for more than just some boring parts to this avgeek fanboy; but happy I stuck with it and a patient Central Skagit library to learn a bit of late 1990s-early 2000s aerospace history.
With that, Julian really took to writing this book as a historian, and not a fanboy and that is sincerely appreciated. Highly recommend to those who want to read some aerospace history in the making and what it takes to be
A) A medical student who wanted to be a space entrepreneur
B) A spaceship builder
C) A spaceship test pilot
Really think if/when Julian's kids read this book they will dream big too.
With that, Julian really took to writing this book as a historian, and not a fanboy and that is sincerely appreciated. Highly recommend to those who want to read some aerospace history in the making and what it takes to be
A) A medical student who wanted to be a space entrepreneur
B) A spaceship builder
C) A spaceship test pilot
Really think if/when Julian's kids read this book they will dream big too.
April 8, 2023
The title did mislead me into thinking that it will be a very technical account of space and spaceships. More than that it is a clear and detailed account of how some of the greatest headstrong minds of our world embarked on the journey of making commercial spaceships. They showed the world that complexity is not the sign of impossibility.
When the prize money was announced anyone with experience and knowledge of space would have known that to make such a thing and achieve the goal for winning it was a little less or a lot less but still it inspired people around the globe. I guess it is not wrong to say that though money is a factor it is not the driver of the greatest breakthroughs.
This book is an inspiration and a cution against using the word "impossible".
When the prize money was announced anyone with experience and knowledge of space would have known that to make such a thing and achieve the goal for winning it was a little less or a lot less but still it inspired people around the globe. I guess it is not wrong to say that though money is a factor it is not the driver of the greatest breakthroughs.
This book is an inspiration and a cution against using the word "impossible".
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