Rocket dreams Musk, Bezos, and the inside story of the new, trillion-dollar space race

Washington Post staff writer Davenport (The Space Barons) offers a captivating, fast-paced account of the ambitions and rivalries of the billionaires and superpowers driving modern space exploration. Opening with the successful 2024 launch and landing of SpaceX's Starship, the "most powerful rocket ever assembled," Davenport follows the manic progress toward deep space exploration, largely led by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin as they battle over billion-dollar contracts from NASA, as well as by an increasingly competitive China. Well sourced with a surprising level of access to major players like Musk, the book's fly-on-the-wall perspective contrasts the American organizations' divergent managerial styles: SpaceX's no-sleep, breakneck speed; Blue Origin's "homey, comfortable vibe"; and NASA's conservative caution. These distinctions provide insight into the tensions behind historic achievements, such as experienced astronauts' skepticism about flying SpaceX's Dragon capsule without a stick ("like flying an iPhone"); they also help explain ongoing failures, like Blue Origin's frequent trailing behind SpaceX's innovation. Among the narrative's many amusing behind-the-scenes anecdotes are a Blue Origin senior vice president who consoles disappointed employees after the loss of a lunar lander contract by playing Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping," and Musk's relentless "string of insults" aimed at Bezos. It makes for a revealing glimpse into the egomaniacal antics, stagnant bureaucracy, and awe-inspiring advancement that define the new space age. (Sept.)

Magnates look to the moon and Mars. Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are competitors run by men who have publicly feuded. But in this well-sourced account, one company is far ahead. Some of SpaceX's rockets have been eye-popping failures, prompting the company to make an explosion highlight video set to theMonty Python theme. Yet in Davenport's telling, Musk's hard-diving management has propelled his company to preeminence. Musk started employee meetings at 11 p.m. and "barely sleeps." Conversely, Bezos sometimes worked only Wednesdays at Blue Origin, trying to make it an Amazon-esque "'Everything Company' for space." Davenport, a space-industry reporter for the Bezos-ownedWashington Post, doesn't ignore Musk's controversial tenure with the second Trump administration or Bezos' recent attempts to win favor with the president. But his focus on pre-2025 events makes for a long-view perspective on what he calls a new era of space travel, which will not only take humans back to the moon but "allow movementthrough space"--someday, maybe to Mars. Davenport interviewed both men and scores of their employees. SpaceX won the biggest government contracts to ferry satellites and astronauts to space, but after Musk smoked pot on Joe Rogan's podcast, the company had to submit to a time-consuming NASA investigation of its workplace culture. Though Bezos talked about "expand[ing] out into the solar system" to find new energy sources, by 2021 his company "had yet to even reach Earth orbit," while SpaceX had launched almost 2,000 satellites. Davenport goes off course only once, recounting a third space mogul's vain effort to wrest the spotlight. But much more often, he deftly blends nuanced portraits of his principals with accessible explanations of the relevant technology and fascinating space lore. Timely, thorough reporting on the companies vying for supremacy in the final frontier. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.