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The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos Hardcover – Illustrated, 26 April 2018

by Christian Davenport (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 976 ratings
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The visionary quest to rekindle the human exploration and colonization of space led by two rivals and their vast fortunes, egos, concern about the future of humanity, and visions of space as the next entrepreneurial frontier

For years, space enthusiasts have imagined people in spaceships colonizing the cosmos, and for more than four decades, US presidents have been predicting a real-life journey to Mars. Little progress, however, has been made since the halcyon days of the Mercury and Apollo programs--until now. Chris Davenport tells the story of the "Space Barons"--notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, but also Richard Branson and Paul Allen--and their unbelievably big ambitions to revive the US manned space program and reignite ancient dreams.

These tycoons, with deep imaginations and deeper wallets, have ambitions to go far into space, well beyond the lower Earth orbit of the International Space Station. They are the founders of some of the biggest brands in the world--Amazon, Tesla, PayPal, Microsoft, Virgin--and have poured hundreds of millions of their own money into their new companies, betting that space tourism, asteroid mining, CubeSats (satellites the size of shoe boxes), and other new ventures will prove to be the next great technological revolution. For them, this is about more than monetizing space and space travel; it's exploration for exploration's sake: striking out with one destination in mind, but finding something else entirely. "Do we want," Elon Musk asks, "a future where we are forever confined to one planet until some eventual extinction event--however far in the future that might occur? Or do we want to become a multi-planet species, ultimately out there among the stars?"

With an inside track on the businesses, rivalries, and rocketry that are fueling the new space race, The Space Barons is the story of how these billionaires plan to open the space frontier, extending humanity's reach and fulfilling the dreams of a generation.

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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    PublicAffairs
  4. Publication date
    26 April 2018
  5. Dimensions
    17.78 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1610398297
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1610398299
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

The Space Barons

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Review

"The Space Barons by Christian Davenport, a Washington Post reporter, is an exciting narrative filled with colorful reporting and sharp insights. The book sparkles because of Davenport's access to the main players and his talent for crisp storytelling."--Walter Isaacson, NewYork Times Book Review

"The Space Barons is a pacy, smartly reported book on the new generation of entrepreneurs who are transforming the business of space... [The] book fizzes with some wonderful human stories of imagination and endeavor but also provides a broad sweep of the current state of the space industry."--Financial Times

"A must-read. A compelling account of how today's self-made tycoons are driven to change our world and our relationship with outer space. This is distinctly an American story, nowhere but America could these Space Barons rise, thrive, and succeed. Follow their journey into the future."--Dr. Mark Albrecht, executive secretary of the National Space Councilunder President George H. W. Bush and author of Falling Back to Earth: A First Hand Account of the Great Space Race and the End of the Cold War

"Christian Davenport has written a terrific book on the new space entrepreneurs."--Newt Gingrich

"Davenport displays his reporting and storytelling skills. His writing is tight and, suitably for the subject matter, propulsive. He fleshes out the main protagonists with fine character vignettes."--TheWashington Post

"Entertaining, skillfully narrated book"--The Week

"Highly accessible... Davenport's access to key players, from the companies' founders to its employees, lends authority to his account."--Scientific Inquirer

"Important and revealing"--The Weekly Standard

"In The Space Barons, Davenport lays out a compelling narrative of how Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin, Amazon), Richard Branson (Virgin) and Paul Allen (Microsoft) all dreamed at an early age of the prospects of commercial space travel...Through compelling storytelling... [and] impressive research and extensive interviews."--Winnipeg Free Press

"In The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, Christian Davenport tells the backstories of the billionaires who are vying for control of the emerging NewSpace industry."--The New Yorker

"In prose more than worthy of a staff writer at the Washington Post, Davenport glides effortlessly between biographical vignettes, engineering and financial challenges in building spacecraft, government obstacles to private space exploration, project failures and triumphs, and rivalry as 'the best rocket fuel.'"--Seeking Alpha

"Readers will thrill at this lucid, detailed, and admiring account of wealthy space buffs who are spending their own money, making headlines, producing genuine technical advances, and resurrecting the yearning to explore the cosmos."--Kirkus, Starred Review

"Starting with a blank canvas, Christian Davenport has painted a comprehensive portrait of some of the most influential leaders in commercial space, and indeed of the industry itself. Well-researched and entertaining, The Space Barons gives both a rich texture to the beginnings and a tantalizing outline of the future of commercial human space travel."--Michael Lopez-Alegria, former NASAastronaut, past president of the Commercial Space Flight Federation, andprincipal, MLA Space, LLC

"Strap in, you dreamers of space travel, you lovers of invention, you admirers of the unquenchable thirst for exploration, for here is a book that will thrill you to your core... It's a wonderful story, a thrilling adventure of literal and metaphoric highs and lows, based on interviews with the billionaires but encompassing a much broader range of reporting... A big story, told through its vividly evoked small details."--Booklist

"The Space Barons is fastidious and engrossing"--TheSpectator

"Topping my reading list for space fans this summer is The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, Christian Davenport's fine new book on competition in the New Space world."--Forbes.com

"Unlike the space race of the 1950s and 1960s, the new space race is not a competition between superpowers-it is a competition among billionaires with egos and ambitions that match their fortunes. The Space Barons provides a superb behind-the-scenes look that chronicles the new space race from its beginning some two decades ago to the headlines of today. This book is a must-read for everyone who fell in love with space as a kid and still longs to reach for the heavens."--Todd Harrison, Center for Strategic and International Studies

About the Author

Christian Davenport is a staff writer at theWashington Post covering the space and defense industries for the financial desk. He joined the Post in 2000, and has written about the DC-area sniper shootings, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the burial problems at Arlington National Cemetery. He is a recipient of the Peabody award for his work on veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury and has been on reporting teams that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize three times.

Before joining the financial staff, Davenport was an editor on the Metro desk, overseeing coverage of local government and politics. He has also worked at Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Austin American-Statesman. As a frequent radio and television commentator, he has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, PBS NewsHour, and several NPR shows, including All Things Considered and Diane Rehm.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs; Illustrated edition (26 April 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1610398297
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610398299
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.78 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 976 ratings

About the author

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Christian Davenport

Christian Davenport

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Christian Davenport (www.christian-davenport.com) is the author of "As You Were: To War and Back with the Black Hawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard" and is a staff writer at The Washington Post, where he was on a team of reporters that was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in National reporting for coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

In 2007, he was awarded an Alicia Patterson Fellowship in journalism and spent a month embedded with the Virginia Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment in Iraq. He then spent a year chronicling the lives of five of the unit's soldiers returning to civilian life after the war. The stories of these five soldiers are featured in "As You Were," which was released in May, 2009.

During his nine-year career at the Post, he's covered everything from hurricanes to political campaigns to the Washington area sniper shootings. He's embedded twice with American troops abroad and has written extensively about the lives of soldiers and marines fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recent reporting has covered topics such as the new GI Bill, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the arrival of the war dead to Dover Air Force Base, the passing of the World War II generation, veteran unemployment and homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder, military recruiting and the role citizen-soldiers are playing in today's all-volunteer military.

Before coming to The Post, he worked for Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Austin American-Statesman. A graduate of Colby College, he lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife. Find him at facebook.com/christiandavenport or twitter.com/davenportchris.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
976 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

P Mills
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book telling the true story which is far from ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2018
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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.
6 people found this helpful
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Robert Hook
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read book of the worlds independent leaders in the space race
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2022
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The background details on the space barons was fascinating.
As were the details of how NASA tried to choke all 3 of them.
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Dr Mike
4.0 out of 5 stars Good as far as it goes
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2018
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Already out-of-date by the time it was printed; the Falcon 27 had been launched and part-failed by then.
This is something for which one needs a new concept - an online version where the author keeps updating it as time causes it become out-of-date?
5 people found this helpful
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Pat
5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating insights into the motivation of Jeff Bezos
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2019
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Highly readable and well informed account of the space initiatives of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk (and to a lesser extent Richard Branson and Paul Allen). Gives an especially interesting view of why Bezos is investing some of his Amazon billions in his space start-up, Blue Origin.
2 people found this helpful
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Daniel
5.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2018
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A must read book for anybody interested in Space. This book tells the start of the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare.... a race I hope continues to drive more innovation in space travel which opens up this new exciting frontier to all.
One person found this helpful
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Mr. R. J. Peck
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2018
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Really interesting and well written. I particularly loved the tortoise vs hare angle..
One person found this helpful
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Mr S Lightman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2018
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Really enjoyed this. Highly recommended to any space fans
One person found this helpful
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Robert Nielsen
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2018
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Disappointing. I really didn't enjoy this book, although it took me a while to figure out why. A major reason is that not much happens in the book, it's very repetitive without much progress. Each chapter is basically the same, a billionaire does some research, runs some tests and launches a rocket. Then in the next chapter, a billionaire does some research, runs some tests and launches a rocket. After that, a billionaire does some research, runs some tests and launches a rocket. The problem is that there is no payoff to all this rockets, the story doesn't lead anywhere. By the end of the book they are still years away from sending people into space and decades from space tourism. This isn't entirely the author's fault, but they could have written about a more interesting topic. Or made the story interesting, to be honest the writing was dull.

Another problem is the book is very one sided. We hear almost everything from the point of view of Elon Musk and SpaceX, to the point that the book feels mostly comprised of SpaceX press releases. (Probably because Jeff Bezos is so publicity shy). When Musk criticises NASA, we don't get anyone else's viewpoint, so we just have to take his word that he is the best and everyone else is inefficient or corrupt. We never hear from NASA or SpaceX's rivals or any journalists or experts to provide context. In fact we never hear anyone who questions if it is worth investing billions in space or if any of the proposals are realistic, feasible or even worth doing.

Instead it is constantly repeated about how clever and innovative SpaceX is, while Lockhead and Boeing are corrupt and wasteful. Safety standards are dumb wastes of money which our brave genius Elon Musk finds ways around. Honestly, this got really dull after a while and the book felt like an advertisement for Elon Musk and the Libertarian Party. SpaceX & Musk are presented as almost perfect and if they ever lose, it's never because they're not good enough but because their rivals cheated and are corrupt.

All in all, a dull book that mainly parrots press releases without fully engaging with the topic.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Virat Sharma
5.0 out of 5 stars Goodread for newspace fan boys/girls.
Reviewed in India on 10 July 2022
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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
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Cedarpoet
5.0 out of 5 stars Neice loves it. Grad supreme
Reviewed in Canada on 8 June 2020
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After the Space x launch? A winner book for the kids on your grad list
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Renán Irigoyen
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
Reviewed in Mexico on 1 October 2018
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It is really well written and helps you understand better what is being done today to take us to space
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Alastair Browne
5.0 out of 5 stars Private Industry Moves into the Space Launch Business
Reviewed in the United States on 27 April 2018
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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.
8 people found this helpful
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Vincent Archer
4.0 out of 5 stars A quick and enjoyable read on the big 3 (4 really, but no one hears anything about Allen).
Reviewed in France on 19 April 2018
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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.
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