The Wright Stuff – The Century of Effort Behind Your Ticket to Space By Derek Webber; Apogee Books; Burlington, Ontario Canada; $25.95 (soft cover); October 2010.
Here’s an invaluable guide to the emergence of public space tourism. What the reader will find in this book’s pages and via numerous photos is the cast of characters that have influenced space tourism: From engineers and entrepreneurs, as well as politicians and artists…to schemers and flat-out dreamers.
Webber has done us all a valuable service by putting this material into a highly enjoyable volume – one that takes the reader on a trajectory that’s suborbital and orbital, historical and future-looking.
As Webber points out, the book tells the story of what it took to make space tourism an overnight success. The author details the foundation and many linkages that stem from the early days of flight to the pioneers of today that are shaping public space transportation.
A strong attribute of this book is chronicling the efforts of so many – individuals that you likely have heard of, but perhaps some that are less familiar. After reading this book, you’ll have a strong sense of the decades of dedication by people making a difference in the field of space tourism.
There’s no doubt that routine public access to space – and the vehicles that enable this prospect — will undergo years of shakeout and testing. But there’s also no doubt that the heritage of flight is giving birth to a new, off-planet experience.
The stage has been set…the vehicles are being assembled…dreams are being propelled into reality in terms of passenger space travel.
In the book’s final pages, the author recounts the words of America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard: “Let’s light this candle!”
For more information, go to:
http://www.cgpublishing.com/Books/9781926592176.html
By Leonard David