Fans of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, Richard Branson, and the privatization of space should celebrate. Three recent books document the 21st-century private space race.
One is Christian Davenport’s book, Space Barons: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos.
The other is by Tim Fernholz's Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race.
And the most recent is Ashlee Vance's When the Heavens Went on Sale.
Which one should you read?
When the Heavens Went on Sale
Among the three books, I recommend Ashlee Vance's When the Heavens Went on Sale. Although all three books are fabulous, I prefer Vance's book because he focuses exclusively on lesser known companies, such as:
- Astra
- Firefly
- Planet Labs
- Rocket Lab
I knew little about these innovative companies, so I loved taking a deep dive into them.
Another reason why Lance's book is best is that it's the most recent. It's available May 9, 2023, whereas the other books have been out for a few years. In the fast-changing space industry, it's best to get the latest info.
Space Barons vs. Rocket Billionaires have more things in common each other than they have differences. Both books:
- Put the spotlight mainly on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Other billionaires and barons take up perhaps 20% of each book.
Focus much more on history than the future (90/10). - Summarize similar stories (which is to be expected).
- Largely ignore non-American space efforts (e.g., Russians making Dennis Tito the first private space tourist).
- Hardly mention several companies that plan to mine asteroids (perhaps the authors believe these companies are too small and/or their leaders aren't authentic "barons" or billionaires yet).
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos is blasting off into space thanks to Amazon's stock blasting off. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
The differences include:
- Space Barons has roughly 15% more pages and costs about 15% more than Rocket Billionaires.
- Christian Davenport (Space Barons author) covers the defense and space industries for The Washington Post.
- Tim Fernholz (Rocket Billionaires author) reports for Quartz.
- Rocket Billionaires spends slightly more time on Bezos than Space Barons.
- Space Barons covers slightly more personalities than Rocket Billionaires.
In short, both books are outstanding summaries of this century's progress in spaceflight, especially spaceflight driven by private enterprise.
The main problem that both books have is the same problem that most books about technology have: they spend 90% of the time discussing the past and only 10% discussing the future. You'd think that books about cutting-edge technology would focus a bit more on the future.
If you're an intrepid traveler, then space travel probably fascinates you. Few think through the implications. Bezos pointed out, "My friends who say they want to move to Mars one day, I say: Why don't you go live in Antarctica for a year first because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars."
The late biographer Stephen Ambrose observed that, in some ways, Lewis and Clark had a greater challenge than the first men to land on the moon. The moon pioneers had maps and photographs of their destinations long before they landed there. They also had effortless communication with mission control. Lewis and Clark couldn't call Thomas Jefferson and didn't know what they would see over the next ridge.
On the other hand, Lewis and Clark had oxygen, water, livable temperatures, easy access to food, Earth's gravity, freedom to run outside, and natural protection against deadly cosmic rays.
Living in Antarctica would give you all those benefits except the ability to effortlessly run around outside (especially in winter). And yet, are you willing to live there?
How would you feel about spending your life living underground?
SpaceX's twin booster rockets successfully landed like clones. (Photo credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
VERDICT
Because I read Space Barons before Rocket Billionaires, I found it more engrossing than Rocket Billionaires.
However, in a parallel universe, where my reading order would be flipped, I probably would have found Rocket Billionaires more thrilling than Space Barons.
My recommendation: sample each book at your favorite bookstore and judge for yourself. They're both outstanding books.
I originally wrote this article in my Forbes column.
