From Booklist
What this country needs now is a down-to-earth book about travel in outer space. Not surprisingly, the iconoclastic gang at Loompanics provides it. Drawing upon history as well as an admirable spirit of adventure, Howerton argues that the effort to realize space travel should be privatized: "Give people the positive motivator of profit, and you will not be able to stop space development." In fact, the privatization of space travel is already underway, as Howerton details in a chapter about International Space Enterprises, a San Diego-based company readying a privately funded moon launch for the late 1990s. Other companies (e.g., Lunar Resources, Outer Space Development) are also out there, and Howerton considers them in fascinating detail, too, in what is easily one of the most uplifting recent books for fans and supporters of space travel. Howerton ultimately leaves us eager for the space race to begin again, this time between profit-motivated private companies able to make daring decisions and take calculated risks without having to spend years building coalitions of public support.
Mike Tribby
