Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight

by Joe Pappalardo

The 21st-century space industry is changing drastically, the most dramatic shift happening in the United States, where private sector companies—like Elon Musk’s SpaceX—are building a dizzying array of new spacecraft and rockets, not just for government use, but for any paying customer. At the heart of this space revolution are spaceports, the center and literal launching pad of spaceflight. The up-front costs of spaceports are measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the competition is extreme, and failure is unforgivable—and often fatal.


Aerospace journalist Joe Pappalardo has witnessed rocket launches around the world, visiting every working spaceport in the United States. In his comprehensive book Spaceport Earth, Pappalardo describes the rise of a plethora of private companies in the United States, and how they are reshaping the way the world is using space for industry and science—and creating spaceports. Spaceport Earth will be a travelogue through modern space history as it is being made. From the familiar Cape Canaveral to the jungle launch site in French Guiana, South America, spaceflight fanatics will appreciate the close perspective to launch sites, while those new to the industry will be enamored by stories the industrial titans, engineers, billionaires, schemers and politicians who are redefining what it means for humans to be a spacefaring species.

Genres: Nonfiction, Space, Science, History, Technology

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 28, 2017

About the author

JOE PAPPALARDO is the author of the critically acclaimed books Inferno: The True Story of a B 17 Gunner’s Heroism and the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History, Sunflowers: The Secret History and Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight . Pappalardo is a freelance journalist and former associate editor of Air & Space Smithsonian magazine, a writing contributor to National Geographic magazine, a contributor to Texas Monthly, and a former senior editor and current contributor to Popular Mechanics. He has appeared on C-Span, CNN, Fox News and television shows on the Science Channel and the History Channel.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space travel was one once the sole domain of governments; they were the only ones who could afford the multi-million pond budgets and the long timescales for design, development and testing, as well as the risks associated with launching expensive rockets full of very explosive fuel. The once great NASA now has to buy space and payloads on rockets from ESA and the Russians

Whilst it is no longer a race amongst countries for space, we now have a plethora of companies vying for government and private companies money as well as those trying to start the space tourism industry. There are some big players getting involved, Bezos with his Blue Origin company, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic. They have all been pouring vast sums into this industry as the sky is the limit for potential growth and profits.

Joe Pappalardo has had a fascination with space flight for a long time and has been fortunate (or lucky) enough to see many launches not only in America but at various sites around the world. As well as the main contenders who are developing their own rockets there are a large number of other companies that want to hitch a ride before the rocket goes, and it is these people that Pappalardo travels to see and talk too. He talks to those with the money, the rocket scientists making them work, the states that are investing in the infrastructure for their own spaceports. Even though technology is improving, it is still a dangerous game, there are stories of failed projects, huge explosions as rockets fail even before launch and sadly those that have had their lives extinguished pushing to the future.

I finished this on the day that Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy Lifter blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral and put a car into space. I loved the Don't Panic message on the screen on the dashboard, but most impressive was the return of the boosters bask to Earth, landing in perfect synchronicity. This is a really good introduction to the current state of space technology and those seeing it as just another investment opportunity. There are going to be few winners and lots of losers in this very expensive game. One day this will all be history; but at this very moment, it is the future.

[Evelina | AvalinahsBooks]

DNF @ around 30% and also Audible audiobook, but Goodreads didn't seem to have the edition

This book so far seems incredibly boring to me, which is surprising since I'm such a huge space dork.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite sure what I was expecting from this, but not exactly 'this'. A bit of a let-down, and possibly not as informative as I thought it'd be, while at the same time very burdened by jargon....? Not quite sure how to phrase that other than that way.

Its not the most technical piece of writing I've read (I have read Spinoza's Ethics afterall), but its not the most easily accessible, and I think its almost written in a style that lends itself to confusion. You get tons of spacecraft and spacecraft companies and parts and owners and workers and astronaut names thrown at you... with very little disposition or explanation to them outside "here is X and they do X" and then later on its referred back to them almost as if you should have immediate recall on them.

Despite the author's attempt to make it lightweight and easy to read too, I think its a bit of a dry read. The stuff is fascinating, but a lot of it seems kind of mundane and humdrum and you're given things in a stringing list of events and facts and names and basically required to recall them later to fully understand a paragraph at the end of a chapter. I think (sadly) the author's exuberance and enthusiasm for the topic doesn't fully come through.

Each chapter reads like a brand new essay that is constantly being added to the overall sum of essays, and tacked on. There isn't a great deal of cohesion going back and forth from chapter to chapter, and things aren't exactly in a geographical or in a timeline fashion of events. So there's bouncing around from chapter to chapter as well, and some facts/names/things get repeated over and over themselves quite a few times.

Other asides - there is a fair amount of typos and misplaced words, 'a's that should sometimes be 'at's and misplaced and mixed up articles of speech and stuff. ALSO, outside of a book on candy, this book might have the most usage of the word/term "gumdrop" I've ever seen in a written book before.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a great look into the different companies and politics of the commercial spaceflight era.

The author does fall into the trap of mixing of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral. Kennedy Space Center is NASA. Cape Canaveral is Air Force. I noticed there was some confusion about which facility was responsible for a certain type of rocket. I think he mixed up the Shuttle Landing Facility and the Skid Strip at the Cape. These were really just mild annoyances that could easily be fixed in future editions.

This is certainly worth your time if you're interested in the subject.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where once spaceflight was solely the province of big government-run agencies, since the demise of NASA's shuttle programme more and more private sector companies have taken on the challenge of returning humans to space, beginning with commercial spaceflight capabilities opening up the possibility of space tourism as well as being used to transport supplies and astronauts to the ISS, hoping to eventually aiming to expand to flights to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Some of these big dreams have by now been achieved, others remain to be explored. This book offers an interesting account of the developments in privately funded space flight ventures up to the time of writing in 2017 - a bit dry and jargon-heavy at times, but quite informative.

[Jim Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting and somewhat informative but felt dated.

The book is a collection of articles the author wrote over decades, so in some of them he's speculating about things that might happen that actually happened years ago. It was a bit off-putting.

I think each article needs an epilogue that explains what really happened.

Also, the book ends with a conclusion that ties things together reasonably well, but it seemed to need that at the beginning. Instead, it starts straight off with an article from 15-20 years ago. I almost gave up, thinking the entire book was far older than its publication date.

So, an interesting read, but not the best source for current data.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Space is an attitude." Throughout this book, the author takes us on a tour of various spaceports and the companies that use them. I love the technology and innovation that has recently upended the aerospace industry so I found this book to be really interesting. I remember many of these launches, and it was fun to get a behind the scenes glimpse at the drama behind them. ULA or SpaceX? 😊

[Daniel Wrench · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good summary of the current (2017, so very recent) state of spaceflight. After the shuttle program ended you may have wondered what in fact is happening, and it turns out there is a menagerie of ambitious individuals and companies trying to make it to space. The author documents the intriguing present, with an eye to the inspiring future.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to learn how much space flight has developed since the ending of the NASA shuttle program. SpaceX is the most important enterprise but many other players are up and coming. There are many risks, especially during liftoff. SpaceX has developed an innovative way to reclaim spent booster tanks by safely re-landing them.

[Aj Euscher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 stars. It was pretty good and was a fun topic but the fact that it's already out of date and didn't have a great cohesive thread held it back.

It was a fun perspective on space industry that I would recommend though

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book to be oddly organized. It read more like a series of magazine articles than a cohesive book. I found the book to be generally lacking the details I wanted and still remained dry.

[George Cochrane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave it a good go.
50 pages in...
Life's too short! 🤷‍♂️

[Patrick Pilz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The space race runs a little fast for a book that is by now a little dated. It certainly was a great book at the time of publication, but unfortunately this topic does not age well.

[Hannah Braeger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun but boring read on the future of space travel. Lags sometimes and other times has too many personal opinions to be considered very factual. Still a fun read and would recommend to others.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the facts a bit confusing but it did give me a general feeling of the state of play in 2017. Aimed at readers with more knowledge of the space industry than I have.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at all the Spaceports in the USA and some of the major ones in other countries. However, unless you are a absolute Space fanatic I think the book is a little dry!