The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
by Christian Davenport · 20 Mar 2018 · 390pp · 108,171 words
for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Davenport, Christian, author. Title: The space barons : Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the quest to colonize the cosmos/Christian Davenport. Description: First edition. | New York : PublicAffairs, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index
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to “air launch” rockets from 35,000 feet—and perhaps even a new space shuttle, called “Black Ice,” it was developing in secret. Together these Space Barons were behind some of the biggest brands in the world—Amazon, Microsoft, Virgin, Tesla, PayPal—that have disrupted industries ranging from retail to credit cards
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a plane as powerful and complex as any of them, built for opening up the cosmos. Allen’s vision was like that of his fellow Space Barons—to lower the cost of space travel and make it more accessible. Bezos had said that inexpensive, reliable access to space would touch off the
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moon. Musk had not yet been born. But with their massive fortunes and ambition, they were reenacting the Cold War space race, a pair of Space Barons starring in the roles of nations, hoping to pick up where Apollo had left off more than a generation earlier. Their race to the stars
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
by Jonathan Haidt · 13 Mar 2012 · 539pp · 139,378 words
these two traits, we get a two-dimensional space (see figure 6.1), and each person can be placed at a particular spot in that space. Baron-Cohen has shown that autism is what you get when genes and prenatal factors combine to produce a brain that is exceptionally low on empathizing
Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos and the Trillion-Dollar Space Race
by Christian Davenport · 6 Sep 2025 · 441pp · 127,950 words
ROCKET DREAMS ALSO BY CHRISTIAN DAVENPORT The Space Barons As You Were First published in the United States in 2025 by Crown Currency An imprint of the Crown Publishing Group A division of Penguin
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the Internet. The new space age unfolding before us started almost two decades ago, the beginning of which I chronicled in my last book, The Space Barons, which posed a question: Is the commercial space industry for real? The answer comes in this one: a resounding yes. This book tells the story
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to start the day with a friend. Feeling good, feeling excited, feeling ready.” It was a welcome show of comity. The bickering between the billionaire space barons was threatening to turn human spaceflight—a daring act of discovery and exploration undertaken at the time by only some 550 people—into an unseemly
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, 2013, https://spacenews.com/37389musk-calls-out-blue-origin-ula-for-phony-blocking-tactic-on-shuttle-pad/. 26 Musk called it “ridiculous”: Christian Davenport, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (PublicAffairs, 2018), chap. 11, Kindle. 27 “The number one thing”: Interview with Amazon CEO
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Force Propulsion Contracts,” SpaceNews, January 13, 2016, https://spacenews.com/orbital-atk-spacex-win-air-force-propulsion-contracts/. 29 They knew that Bezos: Davenport, The Space Barons, chap. 11, Kindle. 31 “We are going to continue”: Heather Kelly, “Jeff Bezos: Amazon Will Keep Working with the DoD,” CNN Business, October 15, 2018
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/the-switch/wp/2016/09/27/elon-musk-to-discuss-his-vision-for-how-he-plans-to-colonize-mars/. 43 In 2005, SpaceX: Davenport, The Space Barons, chap. 8, Kindle. 43 “It only makes sense”: National Press Club Luncheon with Elon Musk, September 29, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrVD3tcVWTY
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Site,” The Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2006, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116312683235519444. 47 These were linked: Davenport, The Space Barons, chap. 1, Kindle. 47 He had impressed Musk: Davenport, The Space Barons, chap. 10, Kindle. 47 Later, he’d be dispatched: Ken Thomas, Brian Schwartz, and Becky Peterson, “The Musk Deputy Running
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, 2011, https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-very-hot-warehouse/. 169 “control population on Earth”: Christian Davenport, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (PublicAffairs, 2018), chap. 15, Kindle. 171 “[Bezos] gathered”: Lori Garver, Escaping Gravity: My Quest
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. Doug Hurley spent many hours discussing his illustrious career and his daring spaceflight mission with Bob Behnken. As he did for my last book, The Space Barons, Jeff Bezos sat for an interview with me despite the immense demands on his time. He also allowed me to interview several of Blue Origin
Elon Musk
by Walter Isaacson · 11 Sep 2023 · 562pp · 201,502 words
Neuralink and mother of two of Musk’s children. Books Eric Berger, Liftoff (William Morrow, 2021) Max Chafkin, The Contrarian (Penguin, 2021) Christian Davenport, The Space Barons (Public Affairs, 2018) Tim Fernholz, Rocket Billionaires (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) Lori Garver, Space Pirates (Diversion, 2022) Tim Higgins, Power Play (Doubleday, 2021) Hamish McKenzie
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; Elon Musk, “Risky Business,” IEEEE Spectrum, May 30, 2009; Max Chafkin, “Entrepreneur of the Year,” Inc., Dec. 2007; Elon Musk, TED Talk, Apr. 2017; Davenport, Space Barons; Berger, Liftoff. 15. Rocket Man: Author’s interviews with Elon Musk, Adeo Ressi. Amit Katwala, “What’s Driving Elon Musk?,” Wired, Sept. 8, 2018; Anderson
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. 1, 2009; Doug McInnis, “Rocket Man,” Loyola Marymount Alumni Magazine, Aug. 31, 2011; Katwala, “What’s Driving Elon Musk?”; Junod, “Triumph of His Will”; Davenport, Space Barons; Berger, Liftoff; Vance, Elon Musk. 18. Musk’s Rules for Rocket-Building: Author’s interviews with Tim Buzza, Tom Mueller, Elon Musk. Davenport
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, Space Barons; Berger, Liftoff; Vance, Elon Musk. 19. Mr. Musk Goes to Washington: Author’s interviews with Gwynne Shotwell, Elon Musk, Tom Mueller, Hans Koenigsmann. Gwynne Shotwell,
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, Elon Musk, Tim Buzza, Tom Mueller, Kimbal Musk, Trip Harriss, Gwynne Shotwell. Ashlee Vance, When the Heavens Went on Sale (Ecco, 2023); Berger, Liftoff; Davenport, Space Barons. 31. Saving Tesla: Author’s interviews with Elon Musk, Alan Salzman, Kimbal Musk, Ira Ehrenpreis, Deepak Ahuja, Ari Emanuel. 32. The Model S: Author’s
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,” ElonX, Apr. 15, 2019; Irene Klotz, “SpaceX Secret? Bash Bureaucracy, Simplify Technology,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, June 15, 2009; Garver, Space Pirates; Berger, Liftoff; Davenport, Space Barons. 34. Falcon 9 Liftoff: Author’s interviews with Tim Buzza, Elon Musk, Lori Garver. Brian Vastag, “SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule Docks with International Space Station
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,” Washington Post, May 25, 2012; Garver, Space Pirates; Berger, Liftoff; Davenport, Space Barons. 35. Marrying Talulah: Author’s interviews with Talulah Riley, Elon Musk, Kimbal Musk, Bill Lee, Navaid Farooq. Hermione Eyre, “How to Marry a Billionaire,” The
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Lai, and Sean R. Findlay, “Sea Landing of Space Launch Vehicles,” Patent application US8678321B2, June 14, 2010; Trung Phan, Twitter thread, July 17, 2021; Davenport, Space Barons; Berger, Liftoff; Fernholz, Rocket Billionaires. 38. The Falcon Hears the Falconer: Author’s interviews with Elon Musk, Sam Teller, Steve Jurvetson, Antonio Gracias, Mark Juncosa
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, Jeff Bezos, Kiko Dontchev. Calia Cofield, “Blue Origin Makes Historic Reusable Rocket Landing in Epic Test Flight,” Space.com, Nov. 24, 2015; Davenport, Space Barons. 39. The Talulah Roller Coaster: Author’s interviews with Talulah Riley, Elon Musk, Maye Musk, Kimbal Musk, Navaid Farooq, Bill Lee. Junod, “Force of His
Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
by Brad Stone · 10 May 2021 · 569pp · 156,139 words
-world-s-richest-person-after-amazon-soars (January 25, 2021). CHAPTER 11: GRADATIM FEROCITER Two books were valuable resources for this chapter: Christian Davenport, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (New York: PublicAffairs, 2018), and Tim Fernholz, Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and
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/03/behind-the-curtain-ars-goes-inside-blue-origins-secretive-rocket-factory/ (January 24, 2021). their helicopter crashed into a shallow creek: Christian Davenport, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (New York: PublicAffairs, 2018), 11–13 “avoid helicopters whenever possible”: Alan Deutschman, “Inside the
Bezonomics: How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning From It
by Brian Dumaine · 11 May 2020 · 411pp · 98,128 words
: Ibid. (6:00). Bezos’s grandfather was: Chip Bayers, “The Inner Bezos,” Wired, March 1, 1999. Gise was also a top manager: Christian Davenport, The Space Barons, (New York: PublicAffairs, 2018), 59–62. Among other things, DARPA created: Ibid., 60–61. During those summers: Mark Liebovich, “Child Prodigy, Online Pioneer,” Washington Post
Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
by Tim Fernholz · 20 Mar 2018 · 328pp · 96,141 words
in orbit. In congressional testimony a month prior, a commercial space booster had hailed “the first ripples that will be caused by the new Alt.Space ‘barons’ and their own rocketship projects,” among them Musk and the amusingly erroneous “Scott Bezos of Amazon.com’s Blue Horizons.” Yet if overpromising was a
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space shuttle would not fly again until more than two years after the Columbia disaster. Most of the projects attributed to the so-called alt.space barons would be defunct or delayed for more than a decade. Musk, now past his first flight goal, told reporters that the Falcon 1 would launch
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith · 6 Nov 2023 · 490pp · 132,502 words
Land Use Policy Implementation: Approaches and Best Methods.” Space Policy 57 (2021): 101442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spacepol.2021.101442. Davenport, Christian. The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos. New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. David, Leonard. Moon Rush: The New Space Race. Washington, DC
Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut
by Nicholas Schmidle · 3 May 2021 · 342pp · 101,370 words
Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible (New York: Harper & Row, 1962). Conroy, Pat. The Great Santini (New York: Random House, 1976). Davenport, Christian. The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos (New York: Public Affairs, 2018). Dyson, Freeman. Disturbing the Universe (New York: Harper & Row
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
by Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees · 18 Apr 2022 · 192pp · 63,813 words
Walter Sullivan. Mars and the Mind of Man. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. Broad, William. Star Warriors. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. Davenport, Christian. The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos. New York: Public Affairs, 2018. Deudney, Daniel. Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and
The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts
by Loren Grush · 11 Sep 2023 · 375pp · 127,360 words