Lost In Space

Product Description

In Beyond the Blue, Greg Klerkx argues that ever since the triumphant Apollo moon missions, the Space Age has been stuck in the wrong orbit, & that NASA, the agency whose daring once fueled the world's extra-terrestrial vision, has been largely responsible for keeping it there. Stripped of its Cold War mandate, NASA has become an introverted technocracy whose signature post-Apollo projects
- the Space Shuttle & the International Space Station
- are perhaps the two most spectacular boondoggles of the modern era. Through it all, NASA has ignored, belittled & in some cases actively quashed the one concept that could change the equation for the future of humans in space: human spaceflight as a free market activity. Despite this, a new Space Age is, in fact, in the making, led by dreamers, investors, inventors & even renegades from NASA itself. Drawn from dozens of interviews, extensive research, & Klerkx's own experiences as a senior manager with the SETI Institute, Beyond the Blue chronicles the flashpoints where the space establishment & the 'alternative' space community are battling for competing visions. Like the dream of space exploration itself, Beyond the Blue is less about science or technology than it is about people: their motivations, their ideas, & how their life's work is driven by an almost biological need to reach for the stars. Written with intelligence, style & wit, it is an elegy for the brief, bright Space Age that was, as well as the first comprehensive chronicle of a dawning new Space Age that could literally change the course of humankind.