David Hoerr and Patrick Stiennon, co-authors of "The Rocket Company," were the guests for this Space Show program. We talked extensively about their book which is an illustrated fictionalized account of the challenges faced by a group of seven investors and their engineering team in developing a low-cost, reusable, Earth to orbit launch vehicle. The books discusses the marketing, regulatory, and technical problems involved in carrying out the rocket business. We soon went from the fictionalized world of the book to questions reality based questions about the launch and rocket industry. Issues of high sustained flight rates were discussed, lunar missions were talked about, space tourism and space transportation were discussed, as was the investment needed to build such a rocket. As a result of a listener question, the two authors were asked about the likelihood of raising billions of dollars for a rocket investment and if the smaller nations that take great pride and prestige in having their own national airline would feel the same and build their own national space plane company. The book is published by the AIAA and is available from their website store as well as Amazon.com. It can be ordered from any bookstore and is a very informative and entertaining read. For further information, visit http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/archive/SpecialTopics/RocketCom/titleP…. Patrick can be reached by e-mail at rockets@machinepatents.com and David can be reached by e-mail at dhoerr@chorus.net. As always, you can send email to either or both authors through drspace@thespaceshow.com.
Guest
The Space Show
