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The Space Barons cover art

The Space Barons

By: Christian Davenport
Narrated by: Will Collyer
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Summary

The historic quest to rekindle the human exploration and colonization of space led by two rivals and their vast fortunes, egos, and visions of space as the next entrepreneurial frontier

The Space Barons is the story of a group of billionaire entrepreneurs who are pouring their fortunes into the epic resurrection of the American space program. Nearly a half-century after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, these Space Barons—most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with Richard Branson and Paul Allen—are using Silicon Valley-style innovation to dramatically lower the cost of space travel, and send humans even further than NASA has gone. These entrepreneurs have founded some of the biggest brands in the world—Amazon, Microsoft, Virgin, Tesla, PayPal—and upended industry after industry. Now they are pursuing the biggest disruption of all: space.

Based on years of reporting and exclusive interviews with all four billionaires, this authoritative account is a dramatic tale of risk and high adventure, the birth of a new Space Age, fueled by some of the world's richest men as they struggle to end governments' monopoly on the cosmos. The Space Barons is also a story of rivalry—hard-charging startups warring with established contractors, and the personal clashes of the leaders of this new space movement, particularly Musk and Bezos, as they aim for the moon and Mars and beyond.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Christian Davenport (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The Space Barons by Christian Davenport, a Washington Post reporter, is an exciting narrative filled with colorful reporting and sharp insights. The book sparkles because of Davenport's access to the main players and his talent for crisp storytelling."—Walter Isaacson, NewYork Times Book Review

"The Space Barons is a pacy, smartly reported book on the new generation of entrepreneurs who are transforming the business of space... [The] book fizzes with some wonderful human stories of imagination and endeavor but also provides a broad sweep of the current state of the space industry."—Financial Times

"Davenport displays his reporting and storytelling skills. His writing is tight and, suitably for the subject matter, propulsive. He fleshes out the main protagonists with fine character vignettes."—The Washington Post

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5 stars

Loved it! A real "page turner". The narration was really good but my one comment would be that not everyone from England sounds like Richard Branson.

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Really interesting

If you liked the Apollo stories of how they came to land on the moon you will enjoy this and reading about the new era of the commercial space race it was lovely to hear excitement about space again and in the current age!

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Cool story

Good story about the race to space by private businesses. Very nicely narrated and easy to follow.

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The billionaire’s space race

A little repetitive in parts but generally a good overview of the private space sector and battle between Musk, Bezos and Branson for the colonisation of celestial bodies (yet not taking into account any UNOOSA policies).

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Excellent

I’m a huge space fan and found this an interesting listen.

If you’ve been following the space barons for a while non of the material will be new to you, however it’s still worth a listen. It gave more background on Bezos than I knew, so it was worth the purchase purely for that.

Bring on the BFR and New Armstrong!

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Outstanding and inspiring

A well written book about 2 outstanding characters of our time and their drive and vision to take humanity into space.
Well written and well narrated makes this an easy listen.

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great book, really interesting.

very interesting to learn how the rocket billionaires started out and come to start in rocketry overcoming all obstacles put in their way.

well read and kept me interested.

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Excellent book

This book is interesting all the way through and a fascinating insight into the new space race.

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inspiring

well worth the read (or listen) , very good narration in audiobook.
truly inspiring story of man's quest to venture in space.

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Incredible story

My first ever Audio book and I couldn’t stop listening. This is truly and adventure that everyone can feel part of, even if it led by billionaires. What has been achieved in such a period of time is amazing.

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