No Bucks, No Buck Rogers: Creating the Business of Commercial Space

£19.95

266 pages in full colour.

This is a book about the business of space. It is indeed the first such book to explore the creation of the whole new field of commercial space exploration, previously considered to be an oxymoron. The book anchors the story on historical developments which transformed the original governmental and military space program into the successful satellite communications and broadcasting business. It then builds the case for moving forward to the next stages leading to full commercial space exploration, with space tourism and therefore commercial space transportation being the key to this paradigm shift. Originally the commercialization of space was limited to various kinds of satellites, but now the march of history is bringing a manned (or rather “crewed”) spaceflight regime into its remit.

The author has been involved in all these phases of development as a business insider, and is currently one of the international judges of The Google Lunar XPRIZE which is using prizes to kickstart lunar commercial business.

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Description

Derek Webber has been a prime mover in both the original space commerce businesses of launch vehicle and satellite communications, and in the new phase of private commercial space flight leading to commercial space exploration endeavors. He is currently serving as an international judge of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, which aims at commercializing travel to the lunar surface.

In this book, he provides a compendium of “lessons learned” from his 50 years of experience, and includes not only a trove of commercial space data, but behind-the-scenes insights into multi-million dollar satellite negotiations, including fascinating international perspectives of developments during the ending of the Cold War. He takes us through the difficult transition stage as “new space” began to question the way in which “old space” had been operating for four decades, bringing hope of the opening up of a new growth period in space flight, including possibilities for commercial space exploration and exploitation businesses.

Webber, who has experience which spans engineering, marketing, procurement, and finance, and who has been Managing Director of a satellite broadband provider, captures in these pages the creation of the commercial space business, and builds the case for the movement towards full commercial space exploration, starting with space tourism building blocks. He outlines a way ahead, which circumscribes the limitations of government funding by using the newly emerging entrepreneurial space businesses, re-usable launch vehicles and cubesat technologies to drive the next stage of space developments.

Additional information

Weight 0.6 kg