Author:
Julian Guthrie
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountThe perfect last-minute gift
Audiobook credit bundles can be delivered instantly, given worldwide, and support local bookstores!
Start giftingLimited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Nowโs a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayHow to Make a Spaceship
Unavailable due to DRM restrictions
This audiobook is not for sale because it is not DRM-free (DRM stands for Digital Rights Management). Offering audiobooks with restricted digital rights is not consistent with our values. Learn more
This audiobook uses AI narration.
Weโre taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreAfterword by Professor Stephen Hawking
The historic race that reawakened the promise of manned spaceflight
Alone in a spartan black cockpit, test pilot Mike Melvill rocketed toward space. He had eighty seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. He might not make it back alive. If he did, he would make history as the world's first commercial astronaut.
The spectacle defied reason, the result of a competition dreamed up by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, whose vision for a new race to space required small teams to do what only the world's largest governments had done before.
From the age of eight, when he watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon, Diamandis's singular goal was to get to space. When he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight, he set out on one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time. If the government wouldn't send him to space, he would create a private space flight industry himself.
In the 1990s, this idea was the stuff of science fiction. Undaunted, Diamandis found inspiration in the golden age of aviation. He discovered that Charles Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight to win a $25,000 prize. The flight made Lindbergh the most famous man on earth and galvanized the airline industry. Why, Diamandis thought, couldn't the same be done for space flight?
The story of the bullet-shaped SpaceShipOne, and the other teams in the hunt for a $10 million prize is an extraordinary tale of making the impossible possible. In the end, as Diamandis dreamed, the result wasn't just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry.
Julian Guthrie (Author)
Julian Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who spent 20 years at the San Francisco Chronicle and has been published by The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and others. Her most recent book is The Billionaire and the Mechanic, a bestselling 2014 account of Oracle CEO Larry Ellisonโs pursuit of the Americas Cup.
Sir Richard Branson (Foreword By)
Sir Richard Branson is a global entrepreneur, adventurer and founder of the Virgin Group, one of the world's most recognised and respected brands. He is the international bestselling author of seven books, including the classic Losing My Virginity and the new autobiography Finding My Virginity. He lives on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, is married to Joan, father to Holly and Sam and proud grand-dude to five grandchildren.
Audiobook details
Narrator:
Robert Shapiro
ISBN:
9781473542556
Length:
16 hours 36 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Transworld
Publication date:
September 22, 2016
Edition:
Unabridged