TEST GODS

An intrepid writer for the New Yorker delivers the inside story of the private space industry’s first spaceship.

Schmidle is a talented journalist, but his achievement getting behind the scenes at Virgin Galactic, one of Richard Branson’s most sensational and expensive endeavors, is especially impressive. “It was beyond zany, Branson’s dream of sending passengers into space aboard this handmade craft they called SpaceShipTwo,” writes the author. “But the zany ones were often the ones who made history.” Even reported more traditionally, the story would magnetize readers. There are certainly echoes of The Right Stuff, and Schmidle does an effective job in his juggling of journalistic objectivity, clear admiration for his pioneering biographical subjects, and tribute to his father, Robert Schmidle, a much-admired fighter pilot. In addition to the flamboyant showman Branson, there are appearances by Microsoft’s Paul Allen, who funded the $10 million X Prize that challenged private companies to reach space, as well as vignettes celebrating figures like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, among others. To his credit, Schmidle drills down on a handful of significant figures, including Mark Stucky, a daredevil test pilot who had dreams of becoming an astronaut; peers like Mark Patterson, Luke Colby, and Mike Melville; and the visionary engineers that designed SpaceShipOne, most notably Burt Rutan, whose innovations in design and construction made the winning flight possible. Throughout, Schmidle delivers plenty of captivating drama, from the inevitable tragedy of fatal test-flight crashes to domestic strife stemming from the pilots’ singular obsession to the predictable friction between engineers trying to keep the spaceship in one piece and pilots who want to fly as fast and far as possible. Similar stories will be told about competing ventures like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin or Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but Schmidle’s agile, compassionate narrative serves as an exciting first word on the subject.

A candid and revealing portrayal of extraordinary people striving to breach one of humanity’s final frontiers.