The space race was once between the United States and the Soviet Union; now it’s between two tech billionaires trying to seize the mantle of most powerful space lord. For Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the development of SpaceX and Blue Origin respectively is the culmination of a lifetime commitment to technology growth and science fiction. It’s also increasingly a ferocious campaign, one that has turned them from experimental pioneers to aggressive businessmen hoping to seize the future of space’s GDP for themselves.All of this is ably documented in Christian Davenport’s new book, “Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race.” A follow up from his massively popular book “The Space Barons,” the book chronicles the last seven years of the new space race with alacrity and intimate details.Christian and Riskgaming host Danny Crichton talk about how he transitioned from covering Afghanistan and America’s home front in the War on Terror to covering the crazy billionaires at the heart of the space race. Then they talk about Musk’s fight over the United Launch Alliance, why Blue Origin has been taking on more risks in recent years, NASA and the government’s growing dependency on private companies for manned spaceflight, what the next decade of the space economy will look like, and finally, how China is entering the picture in a frenetic way.
