
Test Gods
Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
In the spirit of The Right Stuff, updated for the 21st century, Test Gods is an epic story about extreme bravery and sacrifice, about the thin line between lunacy and genius. Most of all, it is a story about the pursuit of meaning in our lives-and the fulfillment of our dreams.
Working from exclusive inside reporting, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic's campaign to build a space tourism company. Schmidle follows a handful of characters-Mark Stucky, Virgin's lead test pilot; Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire funding the venture; Mike Moses, the grounded, unflappable president; Mike Alsbury, the test pilot killed in a fatal crash; and others-through personal and professional dramas, in pursuit of their collective goal: to make space tourism a reality.
Along the way, Schmidle weaves his relationship with his father-a former fighter pilot and decorated war hero-into the tragedies and triumphs that Branson's team confronts out in the Mojave desert as they design, build, and test-fly their private rocket ship. Gripping and novelistic, Test Gods leads us, through human drama, into a previously unseen world-and beyond.
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Content
PROLOGUE Blue Zebra
PART ONE: BROTHERS
1. Born to Fly
2. Forger
3. A Beautiful Ball
4. God Is Here
5. Foggles
6. The Rebel Billionaire
7. Hidden Tigers
8. Evil Air
9. The Party
10. Angel's Wings
11.The Gamma Turn
12. They're Gone
13. Wreckage
14. The Red Balloon
PART TWO: FATHERS
15. A Resemblance
16. Jousting
17. Whale Lines
18. Blank Pages
19. Starman
20. Jitters
21. The Walnut
22. Gradatim Ferociter
23. Artifacts
24. Full Duration
PART THREE: SONS
25. Slipping the Surly Bonds
26. Million-Dollar View
27. Defining Space
28. Dagobah
29. Fortune Cookies
30. Thoroughbred
31.The Space Mirror
32. Wings
EPILOGUE Magic
AUTHOR'S NOTE
NOTES
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
INDEX