The race for the Final Frontier

Book review of 'How to Make a Spaceship'

HOW TO MAKE A SPACESHIP 

A Band of Renegades, An Epic Race, And The Birth of Private Spaceflight

Julian Guthrie

Bantam Press

432 pages; Rs 699

The space race began as World War II ended. The Allies had no defence against Germany’s V2 rockets. So, the victors divided up the rocket scientists of the Third Reich, parked them on opposite sides of Iron Curtain in teams that made bigger, better rockets. 

Nuclear weapons, rockets, space race; these were all Cold War leitmotifs. Apart from demonstrating muscle, major bragging rights were associated with putting satellites and human beings into space (Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn) and on the moon (Apollo 11), and then developing the space stations and space shuttles. 

But space exploration was always seen as “blue sky research” and the domain of governments. It was only after the Cold War ended that private citizens began to wonder if there was any way to get into space. This is the story of the “renegades” who broke the monopoly of the government space agencies to privately fund, design and build space-going vehicles. 

Julian Guthrie tells it well, albeit from the perspective of one man. Peter Diamandis is the eminence grise of private spaceflight. The author obviously enjoyed deep, intimate access to him. Mr Diamandis is a multi-tasker of frighteningly high competence. He was eight when Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969. Like a lot of kids in that generation, he was bitten by the space bug. He studied physics and molecular biology at MIT and then did a medical degree from Harvard. Those are demanding disciplines but while still a student, he established the “International Space University”, now a specialised research institute based in Strasbourg, France. He also founded a rocket-design company, International MicroSpace and ran the university and the company. 

In 1994, Mr Diamandis had the bright idea of setting up a prize, which would offer an incentive for aerospace specialists to build a reusable space vehicle. The idea wasn't original. He was inspired by the Charles Lindbergh story. The Orteig Prize offered $25,000 for a non-stop solo Atlantic crossing. Lindbergh’s solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927 was made in a custom-built plane, The Spirit of St Louis, and funded by backers who hoped to win the $25,000. 

The XPRIZE was announced in 1996. It offered $10 million to the first non-government-funded, privately designed, reusable spacecraft. The vehicle had to be launched twice and fly both times to a height of least 100 km.  Mr Diamandis had no money and he scrambled in desperate bids to find the cash. Jeff Bezos refused to fund it; Paul Allen refused to fund it (though Mr Allen funded the successful attempt to win it); Richard Branson refused (he wrote the foreword to this book in expiation and also helped fund the winning team). 

Finding cash took a lot of hustling and is a story in itself. Mr Diamandis pulled in Lindbergh’s grandson, Erik, to do a repeat solo-flight of the Atlantic to publicise the prize. He set up a peculiar contract with an insurance company, which bet that the prize would not be won! The Ansari Foundation eventually came up with the bulk of the cash which is why it’s now referred to as the Ansari XPRIZE. (Anousheh Ansari was the first female tourist in space). 

The other “renegades” include the prize-winners. Burt Rutan was already a legend in aerospace design. He had designed the record-breaking Voyager, which circled the world twice non-stop, in a 200-hour flight in 1986. Voyager was piloted by Dick Rutan (Burt’s brother) and Jeana Yeager. 

Mr Rutan designed the winning SpaceShipOne (Mr Allen split the prize money 50-50 with Mr Rutan, who gave generous bonuses to his entire team).

The trials and tribulations of Mr Rutan’s team and the real physical dangers the pilots faced comprises some of the most exciting sections of the book. Mike Melvill piloted the first XPRIZE launch and Brian Binnie piloted the second. Mr Binnie’s mother-in-law spilled coffee on his flight suit and he spent the flight suffused in the smell of coffee. 

SpaceShipOne flew in 2003. Subsequently Mr Branson with Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk with SpaceX and Mr Bezos with Blue Origin have all got into the act. Mr Rutan’s latest design – his 47th – can land on snow, ice, water, land, or a ship’s deck. Six Rutan planes (including SpaceShipOne) are in the Smithsonian. 

The XPRIZE Foundation, which Mr Diamandis still fronts, has gotten more ambitious; the $30-million Google XPRIZE will go to the first privately owned venture (if any) to land a robot on the moon, travel 500 meters and beam video back before a deadline of December 31, 2017. India’s TeamIndus is in the running for that feat. 

The book is well-written with a wealth of detail. My inner geek wishes that she had focussed a little more on the technology and the flying. The inner nerd would love to know more about the financial engineering. But Mr Diamandis is a genuinely fascinating individual and it’s a racy read. The afterword is written by Stephen Hawking who says “My wheels are here on Earth but I will keep dreaming. Space! Here I come!”