How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Space Flight

by Julian Guthrie

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Book cover for How to Make a Spaceship

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Afterword by Professor Stephen Hawking

"Reads like a thriller - and reveals many secrets... one of the great entrepreneurial stories of our time" (Washington Post)

From the age of eight, when he watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon, Peter Diamandis's singular goal was to get to space. When he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight, he 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 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 for a $10 million prize is an extraordinary tale of making the impossible possible. In the end, as Diamandis dreamed, the result wasn't just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry.
  • ISBN10 1410495205
  • ISBN13 9781410495204
  • Publish Date 21 December 2016 (first published 20 September 2016)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Thorndike Press
  • Edition Large type / large print edition
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 607
  • Language English