The rocket company /

"A fictionalized account of the challenges faced by a group of seven investors and their engineering team in developing a low-cost, reusable, Earth-to orbit launch vehicle. The marketing, regulatory, and technical problems are explored ... "cover p. [4].

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stiennon, Patrick J. G.
Other Authors: Hoerr, David M.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Reston, Va. : American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, [2005]
Subjects:
Online Access:Table of contents
Table of Contents:
  • Seven billionaires and one big problem
  • Big telescopes, hot rodders, and librarians
  • Gateses, Jobses, and the laureates' Lemma
  • Build big, build many, or use it again
  • Small market, small payload, but not a toy
  • Myths, mistrust, and trust
  • The pitch
  • The business plan
  • Mazes, stop cords, and skunk workers
  • Fuel tanks, heat shields, and fire walls
  • Balloon tanks, fracture mechanics, and friction stir welding
  • Enthusiasm bubbles, ejections, and expander cycles
  • Gasoline, alcohol, kerosene, or liquid methane
  • Design reviews, prototypes, and parawings
  • Guidance, navigation, and control
  • Webb suit, hard suit, space suit
  • Markets, philosophy, techniques, and approaches
  • Rockets, jets, and soft landings
  • Pilots, payloads, and passengers
  • Mooncars, monks, and monasteries
  • Aliens, cheetahs, and archea
  • Halfway to everywhere
  • First stage, first flight
  • Stop the production line!
  • Earth below us
  • Money, manufacturing, and marketing
  • Always room for improvement
  • Epilogue I Space is finally a place
  • Epilogue II Mars for the many.