How to Make a Spaceship

<p><b>Afterword by Professor Stephen Hawking</b><br><br><b>Reads like a thriller - and reveals many secrets... one of the great entrepreneurial stories of our time (<i>Washington Post</i>)<br></b><br>From the age of eight when he watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon Peter Diamandis's singular goal was to get to space. When he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight he set out on one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time. If the government wouldn't send him to space he would create a private space flight industry himself. <br><br> In the 1990s this idea was the stuff of science fiction. Undaunted Diamandis found inspiration in the golden age of aviation. He discovered that Charles Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight to win a $25000 prize. The flight made Lindbergh the most famous man on earth and galvanized the airline industry. Why Diamandis thought couldn't the same be done for space flight? <br><br> The story of the bullet-shaped SpaceShipOne and the other teams in the hunt for a $10 million prize is an extraordinary tale of making the impossible possible. In the end as Diamandis dreamed the result wasn't just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry.</p>