Edition |
First edition. |
Description |
xii, 333 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-316) and index. |
Contents |
Prologue: Blue Zebra -- Brothers. Born to fly ; Forger ; A beautiful ball ; God is here ; Foggles ; The rebel billionaire ; Hidden tigers ; Evil air ; The party ; Angel's wings ; The gamma turn ; They're gone ; Wreckage ; The red balloon -- Fathers. A resemblance ; Jousting ; Whale lines ; Blank pages ; Starman ; Jitters ; The walnut ; Gradatim ferociter ; Artifacts ; Full duration -- Sons. Slipping the surly bonds ; Million-dollar view ; Defining space ; Dagobah ; Fortune cookies ; Thoroughbred ; The space mirror ; Wings -- Epilogue: Magic. |
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"-- Provided by publisher. |
Subject |
Space vehicles -- United States -- Testing.
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Virgin Galactic -- Employees.
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Test pilots -- United States.
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Astronauts -- United States.
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Space tourism.
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TRANSPORTATION / General.
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Astronauts. (OCoLC)fst00819615
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Employees. (OCoLC)fst00909111
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Space tourism. (OCoLC)fst01127939
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Space vehicles -- Testing.
(OCoLC)fst01128097
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Test pilots. (OCoLC)fst01148225
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
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Genre/Form |
Technology & Engineering / Aeronautics & Astronautics.
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Added Title |
Virgin Galactic and the making of a modern astronaut |
Other Form: |
Online version: Schmidle, Nicholas, Test gods First edition. New York, NY : Henry Holt and Company, 2021. 9781250229748 (DLC) 2020052703 |
ISBN |
9781250229755 (hardcover) |
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1250229758 (hardcover) |
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9781250229748 (ebook) |
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