A review by midwinter
How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Space Flight by Julian Guthrie

4.0

Julian Guthrie has put together the story of the Ansari XPrize based on the host of interviews he had with the people involved in it, either as organizers or as competitors. The story is well told and well paced. I did not find it dull at any moment in time. It even managed to convey emotions well, for example when describing the scenes when the pilots would say their goodbyes to the loved ones before a test flight.

It was also interesting to briefly see what other competitors were doing in other corners of the world. The part of the book dedicated to the other teams is adequate but it does not really make you feel that there was any competition. As one of the people involved in the project said, only 1 team seemed to be adequately funded -

Scaled Composites which is also the only one that managed to fly a manned mission and in the end win the prize.

Good read, definitely recommended to fans of space exploration and its brief history.