The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

I didn’t really have a preconceived notion of what to expect here. As it turns out, it was an excellent narrative of events and of intentions compiled from first hand comments from the primary actors. A great read.

As the U.S. government goes on a wild goose chase for its next goal in space, NASA going around in circles as it complies, the private space industry is now moving in, and not a moment too soon. Since its last voyage to the Moon (Apollo 17) back in 1972, the U.S. and NASA has retreated to Earth orbit, with Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and the space shuttle. The shuttle was a noble experiment meant to cut costs and fly to space constantly, but alas, it turned out to be the most expensive and required constant maintenance after each flight. It turned out that in the end, a flight would cost $1.5 billion, and in its run, two ships were destroyed in flight, killing 14 astronauts.Enter the private space industries, that builds rockets from scratch, launches them at one tenth the cost, so far, and reuses the first stage. Virgin Galactic, being in the tourist business, launches their ships from an airplane at 35,000 feet all the way up to the beginning of suborbital space.This book focuses on three industrialists: Elon Musk, of SpaceX (and Tesla), Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin, and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic. Other companies are mentioned, that started but were unsuccessful, but these three are the top space barons, for now.As stated, Richard Branson is focusing on space tourism with Virgin Galactic, but the two competitors are Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and they are at it like dogs. SpaceX has mostly dominated the headlines, with its Dragon capsule supplying the International Space Station (ISS) and the first stage of the Falcon 9 returning to Earth to be reused, rather than be dumped into the ocean. They've also made the news with the Falcon Heavy, the new Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, with the hope of eventually reaching Mars.Blue Origin is the quieter company, but they are competing closely with Space X on its own space taxi along with their reusable first stage rockets.These alone make Musk and Bezos fiercely compete and make the race interesting. There are even anecdotes on them being on stage with other executives, but these two avoiding each other like the plague. It's that fierce.Fortunately, it's good for the rest of humanity because the space launch business is finally being made available to the general public, with ever decreasing launch costs, and this alone will finally get the U.S. and all of humanity back into space, the next frontier, this time without an end.As for NASA, my recommendation for them is to completely get out of the launch business and save taxpayer money by leasing rockets from private companies at a fraction of the cost.After a 40 year delay, The Space Barons will help take humanity to the stars.Read the book. It's exciting and filled with tidbits of little known facts, some even amusing, having little to do with space itself (one even involving a gambling casino in Las Vegas), but you see the goings on in the space business.

This book is a thorough and professional review of the current state of space flight in the US. As the cover promises, it’s a tale filled with the current rock stars of capitalism: Musk, Bezos, Branson, et al. And a few names that have made history but aren’t quite as familiar: Burt Rutan, Mike Melvill, and a host of others.It’s a book of tales, not technology, and that’s great for most readers. And the stories and subplots are magnificent and glorious; just what you’d expect from men who have already achieved wealth and fame and now have the time and resources to feed the soulful flames that burn within. These are men not content to sit by the pool, but whose inner curiosity, in its immense proportions, define who they are.The book is well researched and easy to read. I definitely came away with a much fuller portrait of Musk and Bezos (a study in contrast, for sure), in particular, and while it would be impossible for any author not to have an opinion about the players, Davenport is a pro and works hard to simply tell their stories and not show his own cards.I only have two issues with the book. The first is common to all discussion involving the tech industry. There is a lot of effort expended differentiating between the commercial space industry (Musk & Bezos), the government (NASA), and the “contractors” (Boeing, LMT, & the military-industrial complex). The commercial companies (particularly SpaceX) are, of course, the quixotic “everyman,” the feisty, never-sleeps underdog who refuses to give in to convention and who is obsessed with saving money and making time. In that narrative, NASA and the contractors are old, overweight, slow, expensive, and risk-averse.It’s the now familiar Silicon Valley (the figurative SV) narrative and it’s starting to sound a bit over-hyped and dated. Narrative is a function of perspective. Replacing the obscenely expensive latch previously used on the nose cone by the grumpy old men with the one used on the stall doors in the bathroom sounds ingenious; until it fails and we discover that the latch was expensive for a reason. It’s not the wrong idea, mind you. But the distinction between genius and rash judgment can be a subtle one that is only apparent with hindsight.Which brings me to the second concern. There is an underlying implication that NASA and the contractors all get their money from the taxpayers but the commercials companies do not. The “astropreneurs”, in other words, have skin in the game, and according to the SV narrative, that is the essence of genius and value. And that, too, is true to a point.But all of this delightful technology ultimately comes from the American people. All of the engineers, whichever entity they work for, were all educated in large part with taxpayer funds, they drive on taxpayer-funded roads, they enjoy the protection of taxpayer-funded defense, etc. It’s not that the entrepreneurial perspective is false, but it is often over-stated for the world we live in. Whether we accept it or not, we now live in a collective society; made all the more collective by technology.And on a related note, of course, there is a libertarian message from the tech entrepreneurs – regulation will kill the industry and the opportunity that is space. Again the narrative is classic tech libertarianism. But space doesn’t exist in isolation any more than tech ultimately does. If a commercial rocket plunges into a populated area, the fact is that the government/taxpayer will be expected to come to the rescue.I am as anguished by the US' lack of commitment to space as any of the people in the book. I was a teenager when Armstrong walked on the moon and I remember it vividly. It was liberating for every man, woman, and child on the planet in a way almost nothing since has been, although the fall of the Berlin Wall came close. But we were able to do it, in part, because we responded to President Kennedy’s bold challenge as a nation. It was a collective effort.I think the space entrepreneurs covered in this book are remarkable men and women. They represent a core element of the American spirit. But at the heart of that same spirit is another American ideal; “It is amazing what can be accomplished if we don’t worry who gets the credit for it.”

Davenport writes in a flowing, non-technical style that can be enjoyed by anyone. I bought this book as it relates to my work, and found it extremely educational as well as entertaining. The Space Barons takes you into the early days of Blue Origin and SpaceX and to a lesser degree Virgin Galactic. The SpaceX chapters were particularly captivating with an insight into how Elon Musk thinks and acts when he sets his mind to something.

This is more than a book about rich capitalists pursuing their interest in space. It is a book about a dream and idea that these men have and want to fulfill. Their passion is evident and inspiring. The prose and the writing style is crisp and compelling. The author makes you want to learn more about space and our future outside the bounds of earth. I think he does a great job tying it into the NASA space program and shows how the private sector is trying to augment what NASA has done for the last 50 years. The book also details how difficult space is. I was amazed how the smallest error can result in a catastrophe when you’re talking about a spacecraft. Everything just has to go perfectly and that is hard to do. Thanks for writing this book I really enjoyed it.

The media could not be loaded. I'm a Newspace fanboy and this book summarizes the dawn of the new era in space industry very well. It has mainly covered the story of Space X, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.If such topic interests you, then you are going to enjoy reading this book as it written by a journalist who works with The Washington Post.5 out of 5 stars.I bought paperback, kindle edition as well as audiobook of it. If you have kindle, then I would suggest you to just buy the Kindle edition as the fonts in the paperback edition are quite small.All you cosmically curious people can find me on insta- champreads

After the Space x launch? A winner book for the kids on your grad list

It is really well written and helps you understand better what is being done today to take us to space

Brilliant book telling the true story which is far from over and indeed is still at the beginning of the new rush to colonise the stars. It tells of the competition between the various players and how they are achieving their goals in rather different ways and through different routes. SpaceX getting funding through sales of satellite launches and NASA contracts while Blue Origin gets funding at the present time through sales of Amazon Stock. At the end of the day though they all complement each other. Musk has his sights on Mars while Bezos is following the route laid out by the teachings of the Princeton physicist Gerard O' Neill in his book the High Frontier. Is there room for both and the other players such as Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Empire. Space is a big place, I'd say there is. Musk can do the exploring while Bezos can follow up with the millions of settlers who will certainly follow just like the settlers who ventured first across the atlantic from Europe then in Wagon trains heading west to California. Nobody knew then what riches were to be had and what was to happen in the future, all that they were going to find a new life. The same is going to happen now with the settlement of the Sky! People don't actually realise this is going to happen, but the factories are being built and the designs finalised for the first of the vehicles to begin this next step in the evolution of humanity into the cosmos.

If anything is going to define the 21st century, it's probably the rise of the commercial human space sector. We're still in the early stages, and none of the titular Space Barons have done it yet, but commercial-fueled manned space operations are coming, and you have a few colorful personalities to thank for that. This book is a quick summary of the short history of the rise of the space. Focusing less on the personalities (unlike, say, Ashlee Vance's Musk bio) and more on the enterprises, it's a good and fast enough read. A bigger and more detailed book would have earned 5 stars, I think.I needed it to remember that Paul Allen is still interested in space. Even if no one hears much about him anymore.