And what is the Right Stuff, in this formulation of success and failure? The courage to sit atop the Roman candle, certainly. The brains to build it, of course. But what if those contributions, though vital, were not decisive? What if courage and brains are never in short supply; what if, like reagents in a vast chemical reaction, they need always to be activated by that most potent catalyst, money? Money is always in the background of Wolfe’s book. While his avatars of cool stride across the page, their rockets and capsules—sorry, spacecraft—are assembled offstage, at eye-watering expense.
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