Michael Belfiore is one of only a handful of freelance journalists covering commercial spaceflight. Born in 1969--the year Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon--Belfiore has always been fascinated by space travel. He lives with his family in Woodstock, New York.
This readable and compelling account of commercial spaceflight opens at the Mojave Desert October 4, 2004, X Prize competition for the first private U.S. space launch, then traces the new space entrepreneurs' time line backward and forward. Freelance journalist Belfiore regularly covers spaceflight, and his passion for the topic led him to get involved in some of the enterprises (e.g., Brian Feeney's "da Vinci Project") discussed here. So, his coverage is not entirely objective, but it is exciting. The author's description of the enthusiastic D.I.Y. approach of the visionary engineers and businessmen, in contrast to the moribund state of NASA, is a theme currently echoed elsewhere (see Wired magazine's June 2007 cover story). Belfiore makes a vivid link between Peter Diamandis, Gregg Maryniak, Jim Akkerman, and the other "rocketeers" and the group of garage-based inventors like the Wright brothers who made subspace flight a reality. Belfiore can lapse into spaceflight cliches (e.g., "loosen the bounds of gravity"), but his engaging style and detailed notes make this an involving book. Highly recommended for public and academic collections.-Sara Tompson, Univ. of Southern California Lib., Los Angeles Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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