Test gods Virgin Galactic and the making of a modern astronaut

"Based on exclusive inside reporting, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic's campaign to build a space tourism company. Schmidle follows a handful of characters-Mark Stucky, Virgin's lead test pilot ; Ric...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schmidle, Nicholas (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2021.
Edition:First edition.
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Summary:"Based on exclusive inside reporting, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic's campaign to build a space tourism company. Schmidle follows a handful of characters-Mark Stucky, Virgin's lead test pilot ; Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire funding the venture ; Mike Moses, the grounded, unflappable president ; Mike Alsbury, the test pilot who lost his life ; and others-through personal and professional dramas, in pursuit of their collective goal : to make space tourism a reality. Along the way, Schmidle weaves his relationship with his father-a former fighter pilot and decorated war hero-into the tragedies and triumphs that Branson's team encounters out in the Mojave Desert as they design, build, and test-fly their private rocketship. Gripping and novelistic, Test Gods leads us, through human drama, into a previously unseen world-and beyond"--
Physical Description:xii, 333 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-316) and index.
ISBN:9781250229755
1250229758
Author Notes:Nicholas Schmidle writes for the New Yorker and is the author of To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan. His work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic , Slate , the Washington Post , and many others. Schmidle has been a National Magazine Award finalist, a two-time Livingston Award finalist, and winner of a Kurt Schork Award. He is a former fellow at the Institute of Current World Affairs, the New America Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former resident at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center. In 2017, Schmidle was a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He currently lives in London with his family.