by men who have publicly feuded. But in this well\u002Dsourced account, one company is far ahead. Some of SpaceX’s rockets have been eye\u002Dpopping failures, prompting the company to make an explosion highlight video set to the Monty Python theme. Yet in Davenport’s telling, Musk’s hard\u002Ddiving 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\u002Desque “‘Everything Company’ for space.” Davenport, a space\u002Dindustry reporter for the Bezos\u002Downed Washington 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\u002D2025 events makes for a long\u002Dview perspective on what he calls a new era of space travel, which will not only take humans back to the moon but “allow movement through 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\u002Dconsuming 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."⭐ 4.3/5(14)
