Test Gods: Tragedy and Triumph in the New Space Race

by Nicholas Schmidle

'Masterly' New York Times'Riveting' Scott Kelly'Remarkable' The TimesWhen Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, his goal was to offer paying customers a trip to space by the end of the decade. Seventeen years, countless delays, and one catastrophic crash later, his space tourism dream may finally be on the verge of reality.Now, a New Yorker journalist offers the definitive portrait of the adventurers leading the way to the stars. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with Virgin's lead test pilot, Mark Stucky, Test Gods describes the making of a modern from starry-eyed youth to NASA, the Air Force, and Virgin Galactic; and through dozens of gruelling test flights to his first successful trip beyond the earth's atmosphere. The result is the most vivid exploration of an astronaut's inner life since Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. It offers an intimate and unique insight into the new space race.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Space, Audiobook, Business, Biography, Aviation

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 4, 2021

Reviews

[Amanda J Barton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books was very well written. It shows the ins and outs of Virgin Galactic, the test pilots, and the men (for the most part) in charge of the space tourism company. Schmidle did a great job of being objective - issuing no judgement in either direction. I am left a bit disgusted with Virgin Galactic's "real men don't wear seatbelts" attitude towards safety protocols. I also rather dislike nearly all of the main players in this true story. But I do feel much better informed about VG,, which was the goal.

[Brahm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a test pilot named Mark Stucky, centered around his time at Virgin Galactic. Quick "beach read" space non-fic, paced quickly and reminiscent of "The Right Stuff" (not my original idea; stolen from a quote on the back).

Common annoyance in nonfiction books: timelines are sometimes unclear, how hard is it to add a year to chapter headers?

The really crazy thing that Schmidle just barely articulates at the end of the book is this: in the commercial space race, SpaceX and Blue Origin developed automated ballistic rockets to reach space. This is a super efficient way to get into space and back. Virgin Galactic built an analog-driven, manually-piloted spaceplane that is dropped off another plane. The additional complexity and the dependency on human judgement has unfortunately resulted in tragedy to date. It will be interesting to see the future of Virgin Galactic, which is now a publicly-traded company (after a SPAC takeover, a.k.a. "reverse IPO") and accountable to shareholders looking for growth. If my understanding is correct there have been exactly zero commercial flights to date.

A worthy read for the space geeks out there.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

From his earliest memories, Mark Stuckey knew he was destined to fly. He was fascinated by space and dreamt of being an astronaut. After several failed attempts to get into NASA’s program, he eventually ended up a test pilot for Virgin Galactic—a private company whose goal is to take regular citizens into space. That’s a very high level summary of this book and I’m still left processing some of the things I read and I’m not sure how to review this any more in depth. 😂

This book was incredibly well-written. I enjoyed every page! The chapters were short and easy to digest, not a lot of jargon you need to be a rocket scientist to understand, and relatable REAL people. I’m a space nerd and love learning everything I can about it. This was a book over something I knew very little about and it did not disappoint! Everything documented here is very recent history—most major events taking place after 2010.

One of my favorite things about this book is that the author narrates it sometimes rather than simply telling us what happened. It’s not a memoir, but he’s a reporter and the son of a test pilot who was on the ground telling the Stuckey’s story respectfully and concisely as it happened. Hearing his first-hand accounts with the people mentioned in this text was fun and brought a new level of depth to the story. His internal narrative (especially regarding his sons and his own father) that we get small glimpses of throughout is incredibly special and is honestly what took this up to a 5 ⭐️ read for me.

[Pbloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book after hearing the author at a reading. It is the perfect complement to the Michael Collins "Carrying the Fire" that I also reviewd.

Virgin Galactica has been in the news recently with a crazy financing event and a successful trip to space yesterday. If you are thinking of investing in the company (No) or going on a space tourism flight (No) this book is mandatory reading.

It's really two gripping stories being told in tandem. One is about the manic quest for private companies to take tourists into space. Suffice it to say that if you think that's a crazy idea, you won't be dissuaded after reading about all the mistakes, hype and tragedy associated with that quest.

The other story woven through the book is a compelling account of what it takes to be a test pilot and astronaut. The author had unfettered access (for a while) and does a great job of humanizing the people who have a job that is so technically demanding and dangerous that it's hard to understand how anyone survives it. I learned a lot about bleeding edge technology and a particularity unique aspect of human nature.

The book is not overly long and I was locked-in to the dual narratives until the last page. I will be watching developments in the space tourism business with a lot more knowledge and a LOT more admiration for the engineers and pilots who are devoting their careers and lives (literally) to pursuing the quest.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone told Nicholas Schmidle to take his New Yorker article about Virgin Galactic and expand it to book length. Bad move.

Test Gods, more or less, is about Mark Stucky, a retired military and NASA pilot who has served as a test pilot first for Scaled Composites and then for Virgin Galactic in quest of getting Sir Richard Branson's dream of flying wealthy parasites into "space" off the ground. The book is unutterably a mess - poorly organized, often sketchily written. If anyone can decipher Stucky's pre-Scaled Composites career as described here, let me know. Stucky himself is portrayed as a man-child: a brilliant pilot whose first wife is just a drag and then disposed of because she doesn't want him to play all the time, a wannabe astronaut who didn't quite make it into the program, a guy whose hobbies are deadly but hey, he's living life to the fullest, right? At which point my reaction is whatever. I'm not entirely sure if Schmidle was massively playing up the "Right Stuff" angle early in the book, because by the end Stucky is considerably more admirable and sympathetic as a person, and seems to be one of the few people involved who takes the program entirely seriously, including the safety aspects.

Schmidle does his best to dance around safety issues at both Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic. At Scaled, a rocket motor explodes during testing and spectators not in the bunker where they ought to have been are blown to pieces (Mythbusters took better safety precautions with explosives than Scaled, frankly); the first example of SpaceShipTwo crashes because one of Stucky's colleagues makes a mistake described as "inexplicable," but quite explicable when later in the book after the replacement vehicle has been handed over to Virgin we see Stucky watching another test pilot on the program running the vehicle out of RCS gas because he has no clue how to handle the system and refused to listen to Stucky's warnings. Stucky, meanwhile, has been reaching out to an engineer from the X-15 program looking for useful clues on how to deal with the vehicle's control issues, which seem to strangely unworry the engineers at Virgin Galactic.

When the most interesting, indeed sympathetic character, in a book is billionaire Branson (although Stucky hits that level by the end), you have a problem. When there are entire sections you can't quite follow, that's also a problem. I wanted to like this - there are sections that are just excellent and Schmidle is a solid descriptive writer - but mostly it's tedious, sketchily organized, and spends too much time admiring a project that is in real terms absolutely worthless.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2004, English business magnate Richard Branson made headlines for selling tickets on commercial space tourism flights to interested laypeople with disposable incomes and a devil-may-care attitudes of their own mortality for the bargain price of $200,000 US dollars (approximately $333,000 in 2024), under his new venture, Virgin Galactic. The spacecrafts and technology to furnish those rides didn't yet exist, so there was no guaranteed timeline of when or if this investment would actually bear fruit for almost 20 years. In Test Gods, journalist Nicholas Schmidle profiles several test pilots involved in the development of Virgin Galactic's spaceplanes in the subsequent 20 years.

The book's main character is test pilot Mark Stucky (b. 1958), whom Schmidle seems to have developed an imprinting-type relationship on (Schmidle states several times that interviewing and following Stucky is his way of glimpsing the inner world of high intensity pilots -- Schmidle's father is former fighter pilot Lt. Gen. Robert “Rooster” Schmidle who largely maintained reticence of his work from his family). Stucky applied to be NASA astronaut many times but never made the cut; after his service in the various branches of the US military, he served as a NASA test pilot and briefly a commercial airline pilot before joining the private space industry in the mid-2000s. He achieved his dream of becoming an astronaut on Virgin's VSS Unity VP-03 suborbital flight in December 2018, which reached an apogee (peak height) of 51.4 miles, meeting the US definition of spaceflight (>50 miles), alongside copilot and former NASA astronaut Frederick Sturckow.

Since this book's publication in 2021, Stucky was fired by Virgin Galactic (apparently due to the fallout from negative statements he made about his employer in this book!) and went to work for a competitor private spaceflight company, Jeff Bezos-found Blue Origin. Virgin Galactic did eventually deliver on its promise to launch private astronauts into space in 2023, though only for a handful of flights before economic issues have forced the company to regroup.

This book is a really interesting look at the private space flight industry. The timelines were a bit confusing to me as an audio reader, and I have mixed feelings on Schmidle befriending and blatantly looking to Stucky as a daddy figure, though I understand why given Schmidle's background this would have been an easy lapse of judgment.

Further reading: private spaceflight
When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach by Ashlee Vance | my 4-star review
The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX by Eric Berger

My statistics:
Book 162 for 2024
Book 1765 cumulatively

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

Test Gods is a prime example of the pitfall of being too close to one's subject. The author spent four years following test pilot Mark Stucky around. Long stretches of the book are given over to hero worship and the author's personal journey between his fighter pilot father and what he wants to teach his own sons. Not exactly compelling or relevant if you're expecting a detailed take on Virgin Galactic and their 15-year odyssey of protracted and expensive missteps.

There's a paucity of technical details, with not even basic numbers as to weight, thrust, payload capacity, etc. Schmidle will often recount the what but not the why, such as telling us of a terrifying flat spin that Stuckey experiences but not the cause of the spin or what was done to fix it. There are strange technical errors, like claiming if the reaction control system fails a spacecraft can "drift off" and become "another heavenly body". No. Schmidle doesn't come across as interested or knowledgeable in any kind of in-depth technical or business analysis.

I worked with a former employee of The Spaceship Company and the stories he told me are far more revealing than what's in this book. False economy led to near-disaster and expensive mistakes, such as when cheaping out on a $300 air valve led to the near-loss of the spacecraft when the air pressure necessary to operate the feather leaked out from both the main and reserve tanks.

There is something of an overview of the company, but at a superficial level and doesn't really tell you why things went wrong. Why did the management let things drift? What were the fundamental technical flaws? Does the business case have any plausible chance of recovering the investment? How does New Mexico feel about their empty spaceport? You won't find the answers here.

[Jake Genachowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book - this is NOT a story about Richard Branson and billionaires who want to go to space to stroke their egos. This is about the real men and women whose bravery and flight dreams actually make these programs go.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An account of Virgin Galactic’s effort to become a space tourism company focusing on the intersection of Richard Branson’s vision and the work of test pilots and engineers to make it work.

On July 11, 2021, Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism company achieved its first fully crewed flight with Branson aboard. This was the culmination of a seventeen-year program that began when Branson joined forces with Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites to design an air-launched space ship that would land like a plane. Test Gods traces this history through 2019, centered on one of the key test pilots throughout the program, Mark Stucky.

The author, Nicholas Schmidle, the son of an ace fighter pilot, was embedded with the company for four years, from 2014 to 2018 and became close to Stucky. He traces the design and testing of what was initially called Spaceship Two and the launch vehicle White Knight Two. Space vehicle development has been dotted with disasters and the Virgin Galactic program was no exception. He describes the tragedy of the fuel tank explosion during rocket development in 2007 in which three engineers died.

Then the testing program begins, first, captive flights, attached to White Knight Two, then glide flights and finally longer and longer rocket flights. Each pushes an unknown envelope that often comes with new control problems. Stucky does many of these, and the line between temporary losses of control or anomalies and disaster was a thin one. Each time leads to modifications that improve the vehicle.

Then came the setback that delayed the program several years and led to the separation of Virgin Galactic from Scaled Composites. On a flight Stucky did not fly in 2014, fellow test pilot Mike Alsbury had his first experience of going transonic in the vehicle, and in the exhilaration made the fatal error of deploying the “feather,” a kind of air brake that should not have been deployed during the transonic phase. Stucky saw it unfold in the control room, realized the fatal error that Alsbury was making, and witnessed the subsequent breakup of the vehicle. Alsbury died; his co-pilot Pete Siebold survived.

It wasn’t until 2016 that Virgin Galactic would fly. This gave time to address safety issues and pilot training arising from the crash. Stucky was a key, in setting a tone of rigor in flight training. Finally, on December 13, 2018, Stucky and co-pilot C.J. Sturckow reached Mach 3.0 and an altitude of 51.4 miles, and received their astronaut wings.

Schmidle explores what made Stucky so successful–the combination of risk and preparation. It turns out his most serious injuries were a couple paragliding episodes. His work destroyed his marriage and Schmidle explores his eventual reconciliation with his children, including son Dillon, present at that December 2018 flight. It also causes the author to reflect on his relationship with his own father, whose footsteps he didn’t follow.

One of the most fascinating interactions was that between test pilots and engineers. For the engineers, it was often the case that they always wanted to make things safer, especially after the crash, whereas the test pilots wanted to know if it was safe enough–they understood there was always risk, both known and unknown.

The material on Branson is interesting. On the one hand are his “vapor” promises of being able to do commercial flights as early as 2011, mostly to attract investors and customers. Yet he never compromised safety. And later on when Mohammed bin Salman offered him $1 billion, he left the money on the table. He would not take the money of the man who ordered the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Branson was the one who did all the interviews after the July flight. What this book fills out is the story of all those who contributed to that success, especially the test pilots (and their wives or partners who lived with the fear of every flight), and the engineers who built the rocket motors and space craft. This is a great inside look at one private space company, and what a challenging goal they have already achieved, albeit at great cost.

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

[WM D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Virgin gods was a wonderful book. When I first saw it at the library and read the reviews. I liked it from the start but after reading some of the book. I
Was disappointed. It wasn’t about astronauts but about something else. A must read for anyone who likes history books

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Test pilots are a rare breed; daring, seemingly fearless, sometimes a bit reckless. Each time they fly death is there to greet them in the thin air closer to outer space. Nicholas Schmidle gets to the heart of what makes them tick. Along with the rare triumph of a brief thrust into weightlessness there are tragedies and near misses. The author's father was a test pilot and he ponders fatherhood past and present while imbedding himself in the working gears of Virgin Galactic. It's quite a trip.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schmidle's writing picks you up and carries you along, such that it is easy to forget how carefully and deeply reported this book is, representing several years of interviews and research into the technology with which Virgin Galactic hopes to launch tourists and others onto suborbital flights using horizontally-launched space planes rather than the kind of rockets being used by competitors.

The reporting is very good, breaking down how it works for non-specialists in enough detail to demystify it somewhat, without bogging down in technical detail that would detract from a story that is ultimately about people - mainly test pilots and engineers, and how they make decisions about risk in order to power leaps of achievement.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written book about the pilots and crew of the men who are attempting to make Virgin Galactic a viable space tourism company. The author was there to see firsthand and interview many until he wasn’t. Mainly dealing with Mark Stucky and his dream to become an astronaut, but it also the other dreamers who want to male space tourism a reality. I am not a big fan of non-fiction, but wanted to read this one because as a child I dreamed of being an astronaut once.

[Antonio Stark · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few five-star reviews for this year. Most "startup interview" books are prosaic and factual, with some details here and there about the people who persevered the few hectic years of the company's initial growth. This book was half such documentary and half a mix of different biographies - and I found it quite refreshing and very fitting for a company like Virgin with its quirks, public fazes, and an anti-conventional founder. Schmidle was literally immersed into the offices and hangers of Virgin Galactic and wrote down both the inspirational journey of the individuals within, and the perhaps chaotic, more-PR-less-tech side of the initial years. A driven look inside the test pilot Mike "Forger" Stucky, the renowned Mike Moses, the legendary Burt Rutan, and Richard Branson himself make key appearances throughout. The book also steps into the areas of Scaled Composites, Virgin Orbit, and Blue Origin, and was a great follow-up to the book "Liftoff" about SpaceX and a look back at the years before Virgin Orbit declared bankruptcy.

[Shelley Parker-Chan]

It was funny to recognize all the bits of the New Yorker article scattered throughout the text—and impressive to think about how radically it all got restructured into this (successful) book-length narrative. I really liked it, including the meta element about the author and his relationship to his own fighter pilot father. I was curious about the fact that Stucky was half-Puerto Rican, and his first wife was Black, both of which seem relevant given the highly white world of military aviation, but that never got explored, sadly.

[Hagen Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book about space flight I have ever read. It's a remarkable masterpiece, paying tribute to the incredible sacrifice & bravery it takes to "expand the envelope" of the commercial space industry, namely Virgin Galactic. Schmidle is a gifted storyteller and his journalistic commitment is evident in the rich variety of sources used for this book. I can recommend it to anyone interested in the new space race and the adventures that come with it.

[Harald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long way to commercial space travel.
Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 to enable paying passengers to travel in space by the end of the decade. Recently, the company announced another delay; such journeys will be possible from mid-2023 at the earliest.

This book provides a thorough review of the main cause of the many delays, essentially a constant balancing act between efficiency and safety. Alongside the technical challenges, the reader gets a thorough presentation of the pioneers behind this commercial space experiment. The main character is aviator Mark Stucky who has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut. His distinctive personality is portrayed by Schmidle with great empathy and more thoroughly than we really need to know.

The author has obviously done a solid job with the script to ensure credibility. Unless you have a special interest in the aerospace industry and the people there, I found there were too many detours and dead ends for an impatient reader like me.

The book is a selection in my American University book club.

[LeAnne M Weimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two Years Turned Thirteen-ish

From my husband, Geoff: Test Gods is an exceptionally well written collection of accounts that add immense meaning to an already riveting main story. Nicholas gives credit to a host of professionals who helped make this a masterpiece, but he deserves all the credit for what clearly required all of his focus, passion and energy for several years. His main subject, Forger, had my attention long ago. I was the Operations Group Superintendent and Chief of Maintenance at one of his USAF assignments, and took his phone call Monday morning after dust devil number one as he expressed why he wasn't on the morning manifest. My mind was blown when he showed up what seemed like just days later in his plastic torso contraption, doing everything possible to get back in the seat and, more importantly, to stay immersed with the teams that provided that seat. So many bureaucratic processes could have gotten in the way of his next ride, and he made all the right moves to keep the path clear. This book opened my eyes to so much more than I could have gathered about Forger in that highly compartmentalized setting so many years ago. Thanks so much, Nicholas, for doing the hard work and engaging all the right resources to perfectly blend so many lives and stories into the kind of book I just can't put down. Be proud!

[Connor Hansford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing true story. One of my favourites. Inspirational.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of Test Gods really intrigued me. Space tourism? Wealthy entrepreneurs trying to capitalize off of the hard work of test pilots and engineers? I was ready for it! However, while there is a lot of great insight in this book, there were too many things that did NOT work for me to rate it higher than three stars.

While I'm sure Nicholas Schmidle is a great journalist, I found the writing style to be difficult to enjoy. The book doesn't follow a clear chronological order; I was being pulled into a personal memory with Moby-Dick references one minute, and then thrust into a spaceship with test pilots complete with pilot jargon that was totally lost on me--sometimes this meant I was in the year 2003 and other times I was in 2019, only to get then opt back into 2016. The reason for this? I'm not entirely sure.

I appreciated that Schmidle shared insights into several of the lead players in the space race game; however, I also felt disappointed with the narrow lens with which he shared stories--the focus really on the 'band of brothers,' and truly on one in particular, Mark Stucky, who the author viewed as holding the answers he wasn't able to ask his own pilot father. Where were the female astronauts I would see mentioned from time to time? I wanted to hear more about women like Beth Moses, who I ended up googling on my own, just so I could learn more about her--I think the author really missed out by not sharing her story along with the other 20% of astronauts who identify as female.

And let's not even begin to try to make sense of Richard Branson's predatory relationship with space exploration. It just made me cringe. I wanted the author to call him out for what he was, but instead of focusing on the obnoxious spectacles he created that surely made pilots and engineers frustrated, I was reading about him shedding tears and preaching about privatization of space providing 'average people' with the ability to travel to space. I guess if by 'average people' he is referring to those who can drop $200,000 he has a point, but I digress.

Test Gods had the potential for being a great nonfiction read. While there are definitely some gems in it, and I leave the book with a newfound appreciation for all that goes into making that industry work, I can't help but think the mark was missed on this one.

[Greg Stoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book after reading the recent New Yorker article about the red warning light that came on when Richard Branson flew into space (also by Schmidle), and it's a pretty good read! It focuses on Mark Stucky, a former pilot for Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic (who was fired after the book came out) who was the first pilot to take SpaceShipTwo up to space but was increasingly critical of Virgin for their safety attitude. It's a compelling read if you're into spaceflight!

Scaled Composites is a company that basically builds aircraft prototypes that push the envelope, and their safety attitude is more or less what you'd expect; they're not reckless, but they do rely on highly-trained test pilots to do things exactly right, and eschew adding safety features because they add complexity. During a test flight in 2014 the plane was destroyed and one pilot was killed because he deployed the braking mechanism too early (no one is sure why). After Virgin Galactic took over the program Stucky convinced them to add a more prominent indicator for whether they were supersonic or not.

Odds and ends:
- In 1956 Navy test pilot Tom Attridge was going around the speed of sound, fired his guns, caught up with his own bullets and shot himself down! (he survived)
- On the way to one of his flights, Stucky picked up a hitchhiker on the way to work; he figured his day was already so risky that adding the risk of picking up a hitchhiker wouldn't change much!
- Richard Branson was looking for investors in Virgin Galactic and had a potential deal with Saudi royal Mohammad bin Salman. But then Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate, and Branson refused to accept money from someone complicit in that. Good for him!

[Gloria Cangahuala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please note: I received an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

"Test Gods" is a fascinating insider account of the development of Virgin Galactic's space travel program. Author Nicholas Schmidle, a reporter, was allowed near-unfettered access for four years, attending meetings, meeting all the involved personnel, watching test flights, socializing with the pilots and engineers. What resulted was a rare insider view into what it takes to develop a privately-funded space program. Schmidle also touches on NASA, as well as Space-X and Blue Origin, the other two well-known privately-funded space companies -- each, like Virgin, run by billionaires -- that are considered Virgin Galactic's competition.

What made this book extra interesting for me is that my husband, infant son, and I had driven out to the Mojave Desert to watch the launch of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne in 2004. My husband works in aerospace, and space exploration has always been a part of our family's life. So it was incredibly interesting for me to read about the pilots and engineers involved in the development and testing of SpaceShipOne and then SpaceShipTwo.

The only reason I don't give this book 5 stars is that at times it felt a little disjointed, hopping from one focus to another, from Virgin Galactic's pilots to the author's father, so that it went from third-person reporting to first-person memoir. Although ultimately I understood how the parts about the author's father fit in, I was startled when the book shifted to first-person viewpoint. I think the book could have been more tightly edited, but then again, I was reading an ARC, so I don't know how different the final published version is.

Regardless, I enjoyed this book very much.

[Lauren Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher, Henry Holt & Co., for forwarding me a gifted copy of this book to review!

*DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any way for my review*

🚀🚀🚀

RATING: 4/5

“I traveled to the moon, said Buzz Aldrin. ‘But the most significant voyage of my life began when I returned.’”

Growing up and even into adulthood, I loved learning about space. I think it’s amazing what human beings have been able to accomplish through space travel and flight. When I heard about Test Gods, which is about Virgin’s journey to commercialize space flight from the perspectives of the test pilots, I geeked out at the chance to learn more about the people who worked behind the scenes. However, if you’re not a fan of space/aeronautics, then this book might not be a good fit for you. Although I thought it was interesting, there was often a lot of jargon used that wasn’t well explained.

I had no idea of the lengths Virgin went to try and put together a space program but as I learned, they achieved more than they could’ve imagined but at great cost. The best part of this story was seeing experiences of the test pilots and other members of the program. You can feel the camaraderie between the pilots and it was a nice touch to see the author’s own personal connection to the program. While I disliked the lack of diversity in Virgin’s program and how they lacked consistent safety protocols, I respected the group’s shared goals to get to space. Their shared history evolved in ways I didn’t expect and at times Test Gods felt like I was reading an action-packed fiction novel.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Test Gods by Nicholas Schmidle is not only about Virgin Galactic and their race to become the first private company to offer space tourism. It is also a story about the test pilots, mainly Mark Stucky, who are working towards making this a reality. Well researched and rich with detail about Virgin, its people and its mission. It made me long to have the financial resources to one day be a space tourist.

The author was embedded with Virgin Galactic for four years and was given unprecedented access to engineers, test pilots and others who were, and continue to be, instrumental in making Richard Branson’s dream of space tourism come true. Therefore, the reader gets an unusually in-depth look at the day-to-day operations of the company. He is frank in reporting both the failures and the triumphs and I appreciate that he did not paint everything in a rosy light.

There is a lot of technical details in this story and as a non-technical person I appreciate that the author did not bore me with too much of it. For me, it was just the right amount of information that I understand (mostly) what the author was trying to explain. However, I get that there are some technical people out there who may feel the explanations were lacking. Let me point out that the intended audience is the general reading populous who is undoubtedly as ignorant about the tech side of space as I am. I just happen to be a reader who is fascinated with all things space and I got just the right amount of story to tech for my tastes. Kudos to the author for that one!

If you enjoyed Michener’s novel Space, then this is a book for you. Filled with lots of first-hand accounts and tidbits that only someone close to the operations would know. I found it fascinating.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my blog at www.thespineview.com.

[Tanya TL · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading about the Apollo missions so I wanted to see how space travel is faring today. This book doesn't tell you why NASA lost their ambition for lunar travel and beyond. It really does only focus on how the test pilots and engineers tried to achieve Virgin Galactic's (VG's) goal of going up to space, beyond the earth's atmosphere and then back down to earth again. The book was interesting to start with and in the beginning I really admired these innovative characters. Until the author started telling us how pro Trump they were. That really killed it for me. And then the author said how these efforts to go to space will provide inspiration to a country that had become so cynical, where it was just bad news in the media all the time etc etc.

That really soured the book for me - it made it seem that the dark mood that had descended on america was because of some unknown factor that could be chased away by the story of courageous men trying to go to space; when in fact, clearly the mood reflected the vicious racism, misogany and unchecked capitalism that threatened the lives of so many marginalised people in the country, all these virulent attacks championed by none other than the sitting President at that time, President Trump. Who was clearly supported by many of the main characters in this book.

So while I loved the story and the ambition and the innovation of those men, the fact that the author tried to sell this story as being the cure for the mood at that time - while totally disregarding that the men he praised clearly supported the President whose words and actions were harming so many people and thus the cause of this mood - really detracted from what should otherwise have been an enjoyable read.

[Cropredy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is essentially the story of a test pilot, who, after a long career, ended up at Virgin Galactic. He piloted multiple test missions of Virgin's air-dropped rocket into the inner reaches of space such that Richard Branson could fulfill his dream and promise of a commercial space tourism business.

The pilot, Mark Stucky, was both smart and fearless. He was totally dedicated to pushing the envelope, so much so, that his marriage disintegrated and he became estranged for a while with his children.

Stucky granted the author almost unlimited access to his life and thoughts for many years. As such, the book is honest, not speculative, and digs deeply into the issues faced by test pilots, their support teams, the engineers, and yes, the business managers/promoters (Branson et al).

You get a sense for what is possible when a billionaire invests seemingly unlimited funds into his passion (going to space). Yet space is hard, people can die. The engineering problems are difficult.

All, in all, a fascinating read and hard to categorize. Schmidle is a superb writer and you'll read multiple chapters at a go.

Recommended for anyone who wants to get some insight into Virgin Galactic as in the months and years to come, it will be in the news more and more with (hopefully) near-regular (and safe) flights. This book explains how Virgin got there, no small thanks to Mark Stuckey and his fellow test pilots.

[Sally Mander · Rating 3 out of 5]

TEST GODS by Nicholas Schmidile

I didn't care for the title of the book, though the non-fiction aspect of test pilots was intriguing. The book follows Mark Stucky in his personal quest for NASA. Unfortunately, NASA rejected him repeatedly and he was able to find fulfilling work as a test pilot.

We learn the history of Virgin Galactic and what it meant to that company to possibly get the first tourist space ships into operation. They had to design the properly shaped space ships, design a fuel that could propel the ships "out of this world," and find pilots who kept their cool and were able to fly out of our atmosphere.

When you think of being a space tourist, you'd probably think that only a select few of the world's richest inhabitants would be able to afford a seat, you'd be right. Space tourism isn't for the middle class or lower classes. Probably not even many years into the future. It's just not affordable. But, it's okay to dream about it. That's what Virgin Galactic started with, was a dream.

Many thanks to #henryholt #nicholasschmidle for the complimentary copy of #testgodsvirgingalacticandthemakingofamodernastronaut #testgods I was under no obligation to post a review.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I graduated college - Scaled Composites was my dream job. I thought they were the future of commercializing space flight, and when Virgin Galactic became involved, I just thought it was a matter of time when we’d all be buying tickets to space travel. I interrupted my work day to watch the XPRIZE flights and hung a poster over my desk. I still glamorize the airplane-spaceship more than the capsule. But they were never able to get out of test pilot mode - reliable commercial transportation can’t stay an experimental aircraft forever. This is the story how they went from first in line to the end of the road, told through an author who is telling his personal story at the same time too. And for those of you who worked in these communities - many of the people in this book are people who know or worked with, which was definitely a little jarring to see who they appear to have become in these new roles. Sometimes the writing is a little stilted and the narrative is unbalanced. Worth a read for anyone who cares about this corner of the space program.

[David Kilian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor ending

The book ends poorly, it just drifts off to sleep. There is no end point or ending based on actual events. It is possible the author wanted to publish before Branson’s flight or some similar event, so just submitted it to the publisher in the state that it was.

One hopes there will be a revision that finishes better.

For a book called Test Gods, it spends too much time on the author’s father and the author, neither of which are test pilots.

The content about Virgin Galactic and the pilots was great, but it seems that there was an attempt to fill what otherwise would have been thin content by writing fairly extensively about the author’s father.

Finally the ebook version does not include footnotes in the text, but about 35% of the book is footnotes. Probably better in hard copy.

A good story, but it probably would have been better as long magazine article as it does quite fill a book.

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

After receiving this book in a Goodreads giveaway started to read. Being a bit of a science dilettante I do try to keep up with what's new in the world of math and science.
This book takes you behind the scenes of Virgin Galactic through the life of a single (mostly) test pilot.
There is a little "blurring of the lines" as the author - early on - discovers a connection between his family and his subject. Overall, an interesting inside look at the commercial spaceflight industry. With the latest news of Jeff Bezos and "Blue Origin," it's a timely book. The "larger than life" Richard Branson features in the story, mostly anecdotally. From "nuts and bolts" to feelings and ambitions it's a thrilling ride. It begs the question: "What's Next?" Well, enjoy the book whatever comes to pass in the newspapers.