Test Gods, Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut

Schmiedle, Nicholas

Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2021

About this Item

First Edition. - - Working exclusive inside reporting, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic's campaign to build a space tourism company. Schmidle follows a handful of characters - Mark Stucky, Virgin's lead test pilot; Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire funding the venture; Mike Moses, the grounded, unflappable president; Mike Alsbury, the test pilot killed in a fatal crash; and others - through personal and professional dramas, in pursuit of their collective goal: to make space tourism a reality. - Along the way, Schmidle weaves his relationship with his father - a former fighter pilot and decorated war hero - into the tragedies and triumphs that Branson's team confronts out in the Mojave desert as they design, build, and test-fly their private rocket ship. Gripping and novelistic, Test Gods leads us, through human drama, into a previously unseen world - and beyond. - - Note: Mark Stucky, Virgin's lead test pilot was fired by Zoom after publication of this book, eight days after Richard Branson s flight into space. 335 p. photos.

Seller Inventory # 21263

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Test Gods, Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
• Publication Date: 2021
• Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: excellent condition, new book