1. “A SILLY WAY TO DIE”
“We need to get out of here”: This account of the crash is based on interviews with Jeff Bezos, Ty Holland, and Brewster County sheriff Ronny Dodson; news reports, such as Gail Diane Yovanovich, “Chopper Crashes with Amazon.com Exec on Board,” Alpine Avalanche, March 13, 2003; and federal investigative reports, including from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Nearly a decade after Bezos: Saul Hansel, “Amazon Cuts Its Loss as Sales Increase,” New York Times, July 23, 2003.
“It turned out to be”: Paul Geneson, “Dynamic Paseno: Charles ‘Cheater’ Bella,” El Paso Plus, September 2, 2009.
The local game warden: Daniel Perez, “Cheater Bella Can’t Escape Stigma of ’88 Jailbreak,” El Paso Times, July 11, 1997.
The morning of the prison break: Joline Gutierrez Krueger, “NM Had Its Own Love-Fueled Prison Break,” Albuquerque Journal, June 17, 2015.
She was obese: Interview with Charles Bella, “Passion and Adventure,” Texas Monthly, March 1990.
“Her boyfriend is slapping me”: Ibid.
“People say that your life”: Alan Deutschman, “Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos,” Fast Company Magazine, August 1, 2004.
Although he wouldn’t say: Mylene Mangalindan, “Buzz in West Texas Is About Jeff Bezos and His Launch Site,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2006.
The mysterious buyer: Ibid.
“I have not been real pushy”: Sandi Doughton, “Amazon CEO Gives Us Peek into Space Plans,” Seattle Times, January 14, 2005.
But then one Monday: John Schwartz, “Add to Your Shopping Cart: A Trip to the Edge of Space,” New York Times, January 18, 2005.
Since its founding in 2000: Brad Stone, “Bezos in Space,” Newsweek, May 5, 2003.
And one industry official: “One Small Step for Space Tourism…,” Economist, December 16, 2004.
Stephenson held a variety: Neal Stephenson, http://www.nealstephenson.com/blue-origin.html.
“It became obvious that”: Steve Connor, “Galaxy Quest,” Independent, August 4, 2003.
“Those guys wanted to sell”: Brad Stone, “Amazon Enters the Space Race,” Wired, July 2003.
2. THE GAMBLE
“Doesn’t anybody play higher”: Much of the discussion about Beal’s trips to Vegas relied on Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2006).
“This was not a comfort zone”: http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-s-greatest-all-time-whales-andy-beal.
“It is remarkable that”: R. Daniel Mauldin, “A Generalization of Fermat’s Last Theorem: The Beal Conjecture and Prize Problem,” Notice of the American Mathematical Society 44, no. 11 (December 1997).
“We’re broke”: http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-s-greatest-all-time-whales-andy-beal.
“Bluebonnet was like”: Thomas L. Moore and Hugh J. McSpadden, “From Bombs to Rockets at McGregor, Texas,” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, January 2009.
This was the approach: Craig, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, p. 88.
“If everybody else is going broke”: Melinda Rice, “Man with a Mission: The Founder of Beal Bank Is Seriously Rich and Seriously Smart. Now He’s Serious About Shooting for the Stars,” D Magazine, February 2000.
“I don’t lose a lot of sleep”: Ibid.
In early 2000, the company: Beal Aerospace, news release, “Beal Aerospace Test Fires Engine for BA-2 Rocket,” March 6, 2000.
In October 2000, Beal: Andrew Beal, press release, “Beal Aerospace Regrets to Announce That It Is Ceasing All Business Operations Effective October 23, 2000.”
“Our parents had no idea”: Tom Junod, “Elon Musk: Triumph of His Will,” Esquire, November 14, 2012.
“I thought the Internet”: Elon Musk, “The Future of Energy and Transport,” Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, November 14, 2012.
“Well, I don’t think you’ll be coming back”: Elon Musk, “Stanford University Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders” lecture, October 8, 2003.
“The online financial payment system”: Ibid.
Given the size of the rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaW4Ol3_M1o.
“We were both interested”: Junod, “Elon Musk.”
“Because, of course”: Elon Musk, “Mars Pioneer Award” acceptance speech, 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention, August 4, 2012.
“I just did not want Apollo”: Pat Morrison Q & A with Elon Musk, “Space Case,” Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2012.
As a winged spaceplane: Elon Musk, Stanford lecture.
Space was still the exclusive: For more on SpaceX’s early days, see Ashlee Vance, “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” Ecco, May 19, 2015.
On March 14, 2002, Musk founded: Ibid.
At the dawn of the Space Age: Launch data compiled by the consulting firm Bryce Space and Technology.
“I would bet you 1,000-to-one”: Jennifer Reingold, “Hondas in Space,” Fast Company magazine, October 5, 2005.
“The history of launch vehicle”: Jeff Foust, “The Falcon and the Showman,” Space Review, December 8, 2003.
“We’re very proud to debut”: Ibid.
3. “ANKLE BITER”
The young company: Greg Lamm, “Rocket Maker Loses $227M Deal,” Pugent Sound Business Journal, July 4, 2004.
Kistler was hurting: Citizens Against Government Waste press release, “NASA Yanks Sole-Source Contract After GAO Protest,” June 24, 2004.
One top air force official: Much of the lawsuits with Northrop is from Jonathan Karp and Andy Pasztor, “Can Defense Contractors Police Their Rivals Without Conflicts?” Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2004.
“We do everything”: Ibid.
“Northrop wasn’t expecting us”: Ibid.
As a kid in South Africa: Ashlee Vance, “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” Ecco, May 19, 2015, 40.
“I’ve never heard”: Renae Merle, “U.S. Strips Boeing of Launches; $1 Billion Sanction over Data Stolen from Rival,” Washington Post, July 25, 2003.
So, SpaceX filed suit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation v. The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corporation, US District Court, Central District of California, case number CV05-7533, October 19, 2005.
Boeing was just as dismissive: Leslie Wayne, “A Bold Plan to Go Where Men Have Gone Before,” New York Times, February 5, 2006.
The failures were so frequent: Vance, Elon Musk, 124.
“I tell folks”: Sandra Sanchez, “SpaceX: Blasting into the Future—A Waco Today Interview with Elon Musk,” Waco Tribune, December 22, 2011.
Early on, Musk pegged: Megan Geuss, “Elon Musk Tells BBC He Thought Tesla, SpaceX ‘Had a 10% Chance at Success,’” Ars Technica, January 13, 2016.
This was a man who: http://www.10000yearclock.net/learnmore.html.
4. “SOMEWHERE ELSE ENTIRELY”
Eisenhower entered: Official White House Transcript of President Eisenhower’s Press and Radio Conference #123, https://www.eisen hower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/sputnik/10_9_57.pdf.
In a memo to the White House: Memo from C. D. Jackson regarding Soviet satellite, October 8, 1957, https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/sputnik/10_8_57_Memo.pdf.
senator Lyndon Johnson fretted: Matthew Brzezinski, Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries That Ignited the Space Age (New York: Henry Holt, 2007), 173–175.
“In the 1960s you could do”: Charles Piller, “Army of Extreme Thinkers,” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2003.
As a young employee: Atomic Energy Commission, Meeting No. 410, 10:30 a.m., Thursday, May 18, 1950.
“So the agency was controversial”: Richard J. Barber Associates, Inc., “The Advanced Research Projects Agency: 1958–1974,” December 1975, http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA154363.
In a message to his colleagues: Department of Energy Archives, minutes of meetings, 1961, https://www.osti.gov/opennet/search-results.jsp?full-text=L.%20Gise%20ALOO&sort-by=RELV&order-by=DESC.
Gise would continue to serve: Mark Leibovich, The New Imperialists: How Five Restless Kids Grew Up to Virtually Rule Your World (Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002), 70.
He paid his son-in-law’s tuition: Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (Boston: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, 2013), 142.
Jackie got a job: Ibid.
“I’ve never been curious”: Joshua Quittner, “An Eye on the Future: Jeff Bezos Merely Wants Amazon.com to Be the Earth’s Biggest Seller of Everything,” Time, December 27, 1999.
“It really was a seminal moment”: Bezos Expeditions, http://www.bezosexpeditions.com/updates.html.
On the ranch: Joshua Quittner and Chip Bayers, “The Inner Bezos,” Wired Magazine, March 1, 1999.
“We’d hitch up the Airstream”: Jeff Bezos, “We Are What We Choose,” baccalaureate address, Princeton University, May 30, 2010, https://www.princeton.edu/news/2010/05/30/2010-baccalaureate-remarks.
The visits to the library: Academy of Achievement, Washington, DC.
“And from that day forward”: Ibid.
“Will you please get”: Ibid.
The engines were massive: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/f1_engine.html.
“I think I occasionally worried”: Ibid.
“The whole idea is to preserve”: Sandra Dibble, “Ex-Dropout Leads His Class,” Miami Herald, June 20, 1983.
“He said the future of mankind”: Quittner and Bayers, “The Inner Bezos.”
In 1974, the New York Times: Walter Sullivan, “Proposal for Human Colonies in Space Is Hailed by Scientists as Feasible Now,” New York Times, May 13, 1974, 1.
O’Neill strove to make: Papers of Gerard O’Neill at the Archive at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Dulles, Virginia.
O’Neill would “encourage”: Ibid.
“Did I hear her right?”: From an interview with Kevin Scott Polk. The anecdote is also mentioned in his book Gaiome: Notes on Ecology, Space Travel and Becoming Cosmic Species (Booklocker.com, Inc., 2007).
The set, which the catalog: Russian Space History Sale 6516 Property of the Industries, Cosmonauts, and Engineers of the Russian Space Program, Sotheby’s, December 11, 1993.
It was a relatively low-cost: Douglas Martin, “Space Artifacts of Soviets Soar at $7 Million Auction,” New York Times, December 12, 1993.
Once that was in place: Alan Boyle, “Where Does Jeff Bezos Foresee Putting Space Colonists? Inside O’Neill Cylinders,” Geekwire, October 29, 2016, https://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-space-colonies-oneill/.
He replied that he’d just: Jeffrey Ressner, “10 Questions for Jeff Bezos,” Time, July 24, 2005.
On March 5, 2005: http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/charon-test-vehicle.
5. “SPACESHIPONE, GOVERNMENTZERO”
But unlike other air-launched: Ed Bradley, “The New Space Race,” 60 Minutes, November 7, 2004.
“That was a pretty wild ride”: The account of the SpaceShipOne flights during the Ansari X Prize comes in large part from Black Sky: Winning the X Prize, the 2005 Discovery Channel documentary about the contest.
“He flat didn’t fly”: Eric Adams, “The New Right Stuff,” Popular Science, November 1, 2004.
Upset with what he saw: Andrew Pollack, “A Maverick’s Agenda: Nonstop Global Flight and Tourists in Space,” New York Times, December 9, 2003.
Rutan acknowledged: Adams, “The New Right Stuff.”
“See what you’re up against”: Julian Guthrie, How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight (New York: Penguin, 2016), 339.
“Yeah,” Rutan concurred: Paul Allen, Idea Man (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2011).
Left unsaid: Guthrie, How to Make a Spaceship, 341.
During Binnie’s first: Ibid., 229.
Allen would see the prize!: Ibid., 235.
But suddenly Siebold: Guthrie, How to Make a Spaceship, 360–361.
On the morning of the flight: Andrew Torgan, “Making History with SpaceShipOne: Pilot Brian Binnie Recalls Historic Flight,” Space.com, October 2, 2014.
“If I was this anxious”: Allen, Idea Man, 240.
“With no fuel tanks”: The account of the balloon ride is based largely on Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way (New York: Crown Business, 2007), 241.
“The next thing, we found ourselves”: Howell Raines, “2 Trans-Atlantic Balloonists Saved After Jump into Sea off Scotland,” New York Times, July 4, 1987.
Her first flight: Eve Branson, Mum’s the Word: The High-Flying Adventures of Eve Branson (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2013).
And also from Captain: The Penguin Q&A: Richard Branson, https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/in-conversation/the-penguin-q-a/2015/nov/06/sir-richard-branson/.
“I went round”: “Entrepreneurship Rubs Off When Filling Your First Plane,” https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/entrepreneurship-rubs-when-filling-your-first-plane.
He called Boeing: Branson, Losing My Virginity, 191–192.
“We needed to”: Matt White, “1987: First People to Cross Atlantic in Hot Air Balloon,” Guinness Book of World Records, August 18, 2015, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/60at60/2015/8/1987-first-people-to-cross-the-atlantic-in-a-hot-air-balloon-392904.
Carefully, he fired the burner: Branson, Losing my Virginity, 247.
As he recalled: Michael Specter, “Branson’s Luck,” New Yorker, May 14, 2007.
By 1977, when Branson: Richard Branson, “I Found the Policeman Who Arrested Us for Selling Never Mind the Bollocks,” https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/i-found-the-policeman-who-arrested-us-for-selling-never-mind-the-bollocks.
The first attempt: Branson, Losing My Virginity, 217.
Despite the daunting task: Jill Lawless, “Space-Flight Tickets to Start at $208,000,” Associated Press, September 28, 2004.
“We hope to create”: “Now Virgin to Offer Trips to Space,” CNN, September, 27, 2004, http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/27/branson.space/.
“We like to think”: “200 on Pan Am Waiting List Are Aiming for Moon,” New York Times, January 9, 1969.
The list grew quickly: Jeff Gates, “I Was a Card-Carrying Member of the ‘First Moon Flights’ Club,” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/i-was-card-carrying-member-first-moon-flights-club-180960817/.
“Commercial flights to the moon”: Robert E. Dallos, “Pan Am Has 90,002 Reservations: Public Interest Grows in Flights to the Moon,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 1985.
Branson’s version of space: Paul Allen, Idea Man (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2011), 243.
7. THE RISK
“The United States is a distillation”: Elon Musk, “Mars Pioneer Award” acceptance speech, 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention, 2012.
As a guidebook pointed out: David Goodman, Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast (Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club Books, 2010).
In modern society: Paul O’Neil, The Epic of Flight, Barnstormers & Speed Kings (New York: Time-Life Books, 1981).
“If we die”: John Barbour, “Footprints on the Moon,” Associated Press, 1969.
Gene Kranz, the flight director: Nova online, interview with Gene Kranz, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tothemoon/kranz.html.
Musk had always had a bit: Kerry A. Dolan, “How to Raise a Billionaire: An Interview with Elon Musk’s Father, Errol Musk,” Forbes, July 12, 2015.
His maternal grandparents: “Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk’s Industrial Empire,” Segment Extra, “Elon Musk on His Family History,” 60 Minutes, March 30, 2014.
“There is something particularly”: Fay Goldie, Lost City of the Kalahari: The Farini Story and Reports on Other Expeditions (Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1963).
Their guide slept: Ibid.
“The thing that actually”: Musk, “Mars Pioneer Award” acceptance speech.
James Oberstar, a longtime: “Commercial Space Transportation: Beyond the X Prize,” hearing before the Subcommittee of Aviation of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, US House of Representatives, 109th Congress, February 9, 2005.
8. A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER
“To cast a javelin”: http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/mission.
Over the years: Robert M. Gates and the DARPA media staff, DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap (Washington, DC: Faircount LLC, 2008).
The launch was supposed to: Leonard David, “SpaceX Private Rocket Shifts to Island Launch,” Space.com, August 12, 2005.
“It’s like you build”: Ibid.
“Commercial enterprises”: NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office, view by Rebecca Wright, January 12, 2013.
NASA wanted to know: NASA Oral History Project, January 15, 2013.
Starting as soon as it received: Ibid.
“A million things”: “SpaceX Aims to Regain Momentum with New Rocket Launch,” CBS News, January 13, 2017.
“If we have three consecutive failures”: David, “SpaceX Private Rocket Shifts to Island Launch.”
Afterward, Musk tried: Tariq Malik, “SpaceX’s Inaugural Falcon 1 Rocket Lost Just After Launch,” Space.com, March 24, 2006.
“I think it could be some”: “NASA Awards Two Contracts to Develop Private Spaceship,” Bloomberg News, August 19, 2006.
“I’m tired of hearing that”: “NASA Picks 2 Firms for Private Spaceship,” Associated Press, August 19, 2006.
“It was new to everybody”: NASA Oral History Project, June 12, 2013.
“Commercial companies”: NASA Oral History Project, March 1, 2013.
“The funding is milestone-based”: Irene Klotz, “U.S. Rocket Firm Puts Malaysian Satellite into Orbit,” Reuters, July 14, 2009.
Looking back on it: Michael Griffin, NASA Oral History Project, January 12, 2013.
“I’m going to watch”: Carl Hoffman, “Elon Musk Is Betting His Fortune on a Mission Beyond Earth’s Orbit,” Wired, May 22, 2007.
“This was a pretty nerve-racking”: Tariq Malik, “SpaceX’s Second Falcon 1 Rocket Fails to Reach Orbit,” Space.com, March 20, 2007.
“SpaceX will not skip”: John Schwartz, “Launch of Private Rocket Fails; Three Satellites Were Onboard,” New York Times, August 3, 2008.
He added: “For my part”: Jeremy Hsu, “SpaceX’s Falcon 1 Falters for a Third Time,” Space.com, August 3, 2008.
The challenge “was”: Gwynne Shotwell, NASA Oral History, January 15, 2003.
“Between the third”: Hans Koenigsmann, NASA Oral History, January 15, 2013.
“We wanted to keep”: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-making-of-the-apollo-11-mission-patch.
And when the NASA officials: “Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk’s Industrial Empire,” 60 Minutes, March 30, 2014.
Goddard was derided: “Apollo 11: How America Won the Race to the Moon,” Associated Press, August 21, 2016.
“That Professor Goddard”: “A Severe Strain on Credulity,” New York Times, January 13, 1920.
Goddard responded by saying that: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_goddard.html.
“How many more years”: “Apollo 11.”
“Further investigation”: “A Correction,” New York Times, July 17, 1969.
9. “DEPENDABLE OR A LITTLE NUTS?”
Musk was thrilled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=CUmnzaDGifo.
When the company was told: Irene Klotz, “SpaceX Secret? Bash Bureaucracy, Simplify Technology,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, June 15, 2009.
When it was building Falcon 1: Jennifer Reingold, “Hondas in Space,” Fast Company Magazine, February 1, 2005.
The rocket’s avionics: Ibid.
Instead of using the straps: John Couluris, NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Commercial Crew & Program Office, January 15, 2003.
At “SpaceX, we weren’t”: Ibid.
“The biggest challenge”: Gwynne Shotwell, NASA Oral History, January 15, 2003.
“When we talked to them”: Michael Horkachuck, NASA Oral History, November 6, 2012.
“The president’s proposed”: Joel Achenbach, “Obama Budget Proposal Scraps NASA’s Back-to-the-Moon Program,” Washington Post, February 2, 2010.
Michael Griffin, the former: Joel Achenbach, “NASA Budget for 2011 Eliminates Funds for Manned Lunar Missions,” Washington Post, February 1, 2010.
“I think he wanted”: Marc Kaufman, “One Giant Leap for Privatization?” Washington Post, June 4, 2010.
“I hope people don’t”: Marcia Dunn, “PayPal Millionaire’s Rocket Making 1st Test Flight,” Associated Press, June 3, 2010.
“A dramatic launch failure”: Andy Pasztor, “Space Pioneer Elon Musk Faces Big Risks with Upcoming Launch,” Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2010.
Eventually a reporter: Andy Pasztor, “Amazon Chief’s Spaceship Misfires,” Wall Street Journal, September 3, 2011.
10. “UNICORNS DANCING IN THE FLAME DUCT”
“Miraculous profits await you”: Gary White, “Miracle City Mall Was Once a Bright Spot in Titusville,” Lakeland Ledger, June 23, 2011.
And a spokesman admitted: Scott Powers, “NASA Picks SpaceX to Run KSC Launch Complex,” Orlando Sentinel, December 13, 2013.
Musk even put a price tag: Jonathan Amos, “Mars for the ‘Average Person,’” BBC News, March 20, 2012.
At SpaceX’s headquarters: Brian Vastag, “SpaceX Dragon Capsule Docks with International Space Station,” Washington Post, May 25, 2012.
“This is, I think”: Kenneth Chang, “First Private Craft Docks with Space Station,” New York Times, May 25, 2012.
In a statement to SpaceNews: Dan Leone, “Musk Calls Out Blue Origin, ULA for ‘Phony Blocking Tactic’ on Shuttle Pad Lease,” SpaceNews, September 25, 2013.
It enlisted the aid: Alan Boyle, “Billionaires’ Battle for Historic Launchpad Goes into Overtime,” NBC News, September 18, 2013.
“It is therefore unlikely”: Leone, “Musk Calls Out Blue Origin.”
11. MAGIC SCULPTURE GARDEN
Some 15 miles off the coast: Martin Weil, “Storm Rips Apart Commercial Fishing Boat off Maryland’s Coast,” Washington Post, March 8, 2013.
“The Titanic looks”: David Concannon, “Titanic: The First Dive of a New Century,” Fathoms Magazine, no. 6.
“It’s hard to find”: Bezos Expeditions produced a video and published a series of updates on its website, http://www.bezosexpeditions.com/updates.html.
The side-scan sonar system: http://www.blacklaserlearning.com/adventure/how-do-you-recover-an-apollo-rocket-engine-from-over-2-miles-beneath-the-bermuda-triangle/.
After studying the data: Bezos Expeditions, http://www.bezos expeditions.com.
“You can feel it walking”: Ibid.
“Three miles below”: Ibid.
“Mariners all over the world”: Ibid.
Bezos announced the news: Ibid.
On the menu: Michael Y. Park, “Eating Maggots: The Explorers Club Dinner,” Epicurious, March 17, 2008, http://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2008/03/eating-maggots.html.
One year, the club’s president: Lynda Richardson, “Explorers Club: Less ‘Egad’ and More ‘Wow!’ New York Times, December 3, 2004.
“Jeff is trying to get people”: https://archive.org/details/ECAD 2014720_201502.
12. “SPACE IS HARD”
And it was only a test: Christian Davenport, “SpaceX Rocket Blows Up over Texas,” Washington Post, August 25, 2014.
The Atlantic canonized him: Nicole Allan, “Who Will Tomorrow’s Historians Consider Today’s Greatest Inventors,” Atlantic, November 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-inventors/309534/.
National security launches paid: “The Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Competitive Procurement,” US Government Accountability Office, March 4, 2014, http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/661330.pdf.
“Musk is”: Aaron Mehta, “Elon Musk on Russian Assassins, Lockheed Martin, and Going to Mars,” Defense News, June 10, 2014, http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2014/06/elon-musk-on-russian-assassins-lockheed-martin-and-going-to-mars/.
“Our toughest competitor”: Ibid.
“SpaceX is trying to cut”: Christian Davenport, “ULA Chief Accuses Elon Musk’s SpaceX of Trying to ‘Cut Corners,’” Washington Post, June 18, 2014.
208 “It’s kind of the best”: Joel Achenbach, “Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to Supply Rocket Engines for National Security Launches,” Washington Post, September 17, 2014, embedded video, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/jeff-bezos-and-blue-origin-to-supply-engines-for-national-security-space-launches/2014/09/17/59f46eb2–3e7b-11e4–9587–5dafd96295f0_story.html?utm_term=.be88d6562a8d.
“If all your competitors”: Andrea Shalal, “Boeing-Lockheed Venture Picks Bezos Engine for Future Rockets,” Reuters, September 17, 2014.
“That is how a 21st Century”: Tony Reichardt, “That Is How a 21st Century Spaceship Should Land,” Smithsonian Air & Space, May 30, 2014, http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/ii-how-21st-century-spaceship-should-land-180951621/.
Leading up to the launch: Marcia Dunn, “Space Station Supply Launch Called Off in Virginia,” Associated Press, October 28, 2014.
The first flights were supposed to start: Virgin Galactic Overview, https://web.archive.org/web/20070331154530/http://virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/overview.htm.
For $250,000, Virgin promised: Ibid.
It had inked a deal: “NBCUniversal Announces Exclusive Partnership with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to Televise First Commercial Flight to Space,” press release, November 8, 2013.
Flying above the Mojave Desert: “G Force Training with Virgin Galactic,” October 8, 2014, https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/g-force-training-virgin-galactic.
They were close friends: Christian Davenport and Jöel Glenn Brenner, “Two Pilots Who Were Close Friends Now Tied Together by One Fatal Flight,” Washington Post, November 3, 2014.
Siebold had considered the mission: The account of the crash comes from the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Pages/2015_spaceship2_BMG.aspx.
But a NASA slide showed: Jeff Foust, “Progress Anomaly Strains Space Station Supply Lines,” SpaceNews, April 28, 2015.
“The vast majority of people”: Christian Davenport, “Hearing Elon Musk Explain Why His Rocket Just Blew Up Shows Why He’s Such an Intense CEO,” Washington Post, June 20, 2015.
13. “THE EAGLE HAS LANDED”
The capsule on top of the rocket: “Blue Origin Makes Historic Rocket Landing,” November 24, 2015, https://www.blueorigin.com/news/news/blue-origin-makes-historic-rocket-landing.
In interviews afterward: Christian Davenport, “Jeff Bezos Sticks Rocket Landing, Stakes Claim in Billionaires’ Space Race,” Washington Post, November 24, 2015.
“The pad has stood silent”: Christian Davenport, “Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin Space Company to Launch from Historic Pad at Space Coast,” Washington Post, September 15, 2015.
Reaching the threshold of space: Christian Davenport, “The Inside Story of How Billionaires Are Racing to Take You to Outer Space,” Washington Post, August 19, 2016.
As Musk once said: Carl Hoffman, “Elon Musk Is Betting His Fortune on a Mission Beyond Earth Orbit,” Wired, May 22, 2007.
SpaceX compared it to: “X Marks the Spot: Falcon 9 Attempts Ocean Platform Landing,” December 16, 2014, http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/12/16/x-marks-spot-falcon-9-attempts-ocean-platform-landing.
“Well, at least we got close”: Christian Davenport, “After SpaceX Sticks Its Landing, Elon Musk Talks About a City on Mars,” Washington Post, December 22, 2015.
“It really quite dramatically”: Ibid.
The National Transportation Safety Board: NTSB press release, “Lack of Consideration for Human Factors Led to In-flight Breakup of SpaceShipTwo,” July 28, 2015.
As board member Robert Sumwalt: Christian Davenport, “NTSB Blames Human Error, Compounded by Poor Safety Culture, in Virgin Galactic Crash, Washington Post, July 28, 2015.
“At Blue Origin, our biggest”: Christian Davenport, “Jeff Bezos on Nuclear Reactors in Space, the Lack of Bacon on Mars and Humanity’s Destiny in the Solar System,” Washington Post, September 15, 2016.
“If somebody can just tell me”: John Logsdon, John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 77–78.
14. MARS
“Essentially what we’re saying”: Christian Davenport, “Elon Musk Provides New Details on His ‘Mind Blowing’ Mission to Mars,” Washington Post, June 10, 2016.
“So,” he said, “how do we figure out”: “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species,” http://www.spacex.com/mars.
“The priorities of all of our customers”: “United Launch Alliance Announces Rapid Launch, the Industry’s Fastest Order to Launch Service,” September 13, 2016, http://www.ulalaunch.com/ula-announces-rapidlaunch.aspx.
A SpaceX employee suddenly: Christian Davenport, “Implication of Sabotage Adds Intrigue to SpaceX Investigation,” Washington Post, September 30, 2016.
But it was also all a bit: Christian Davenport, “Elon Musk on Mariachi Bands, Zero-G Games, and Why His Mars Plan Is Like ‘Battlestar Galactica,’” Washington Post, September 28, 2016.
If Musk were going to be able: Davenport, “Implication.”
The $23 billion SLS/Orion program: “NASA Human Space Exploration: Opportunity Nears to Reassess Launch Vehicle and Ground Systems Cost and Schedule,” US Government Accountability Office, July 2016.
“His job is to provide”: Christian Davenport, “Elon Musk Offers Glimpse of Plans to Deliver Humans to Mars,” Washington Post, September 27, 2016.
“There’s so much interest”: Christian Davenport, “Why Investors Are Following Musk, Bezos in Betting on the Stars,” Washington Post, January 28, 2016.
By mid-2017, after raising $350 million: Katie Benner and Kenneth Chang, “SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies,” New York Times, July 27, 2017.
“We believe space mining”: Lauren Thomas, “In a New Space Age, Goldman Suggests Investors Make It Big in Asteroids,” CNBC, April 6, 2017.
15. “THE GREAT INVERSION”
He’d joked that Blue Origin’s business model: Christian Davenport, “Jeff Bezos Shows Off the Crew Capsule That Could Soon Take Tourists to Space,” Washington Post, April 5, 2017.
By contrast, he spent $2.5 billion: Caleb Henry, “Blue Origin Enlarges New Glenn’s Payload Fairing, Preparing to Debut Upgraded New Shepard,” SpaceNews, September 17, 2017.
“We all have passions”: Alan Boyle, “Video: Watch Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Talk with Kids About Apollo’s Space Legacy—and Share Life Lessons,” Geekwire, May 20, 2017, https://www.geekwire.com/2017/jeff-bezos-kids-apollo/.
Two days before the launch: https://www.blueorigin.com/astronaut-experience.
“We’ll talk about Blue Origin”: Davenport, “Why Jeff Bezos Is Finally Ready to Talk About Taking People to Space,” Washington Post, March 8, 2016.
Without mentioning Musk: Ibid.
“Think about it,” he said: Christian Davenport, “Jeff Bezos on Nuclear Reactors in Space, the Lack of Bacon on Mars, and Humanity’s Destiny in the Solar System,” Washington Post, September 15, 2016.
While he had been inspired: Calla Cofield, “Spaceflight Is Entering a New Golden Age, Says Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos,” Space.com, November 25, 2015, https://www.space.com/31214-spaceflight-golden-age-jeff-bezos.html.
“If I’m 80 years old”: Ibid.
Although suborbital space tourism: John Thornhill, “Mars Visionaries Herald a New Space Age,” Financial Times, August 21, 2017.
“We humans don’t get great”: Alan Boyle, “Interview: Jeff Bezos Lays Out Blue Origin’s Space Vision, from Tourism to Off-planet Heavy Industry,” Geekwire, April 13, 2016.
Eleven days before John Glenn: Brian Wolly, “Read the Letter Written by John Glenn to Honor Jeff Bezos for Blue Origin,” Smithsonian Magazine, December 8, 2016, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/read-letter-written-sen-john-glenn-honor-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-180961366/.
Coming just days before: Cofield, “Spaceflight Is Entering a New Golden Age.”
EPILOGUE: AGAIN, THE MOON
“You have a certain number”: Kenneth Chang, “Tycoon’s Next Big Bet for Space: A Countdown Six Miles Up in the Air,” New York Times, December 13, 2011.
In addition to his fascination with space: http://www.flyingheritage.com/Explore/The-Collection/Russia/Ilyushin-II-2M3-Shturmovik.aspx.
“I would go in the university stacks”: Clare O’Connor, “Inside Microsoft Mogul Paul Allen’s Multi-Million Dollar WWII Plane Collection,” Forbes, June 4, 2013.
“When such access to space”: Christian Davenport, “Why Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen Is Building the World’s Largest Airplane,” Washington Post, June 20, 2016.
It was years behind schedule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDNdYgh5124.
Robert Bigelow: Christian Davenport, “An Exclusive Look at Jeff Bezos’s Plan to Set Up Amazon-like Delivery for ‘Future Human Settlement’ of the Moon”, Washington Post, March 2, 2017.