Some fantastic books have been written about space. Here are my personal Top 10.
10. Space is Open for Business
By Robert Jacobsen
An outstanding guidebook for those who want to create a space-focused business plan, Space is Open for Business makes accessing the space industry easier than ever. This well-researched guide offers an easy-to-read framework to help newcomers understand the context that created the commercial movement that emerged as the NewSpace sector. The book features insights from over 100 experts, including space investors and entrepreneurs. It also offers an analysis of winning strategies and economics that helped shape the trillion-dollar field. The book further delves into how space, the arts and culture are linked while offering a fully-rounded view of the vast opportunities, investment potential and benefits for Earth that the space industry can harness.
The author Robert Jacobsen offers a thorough breakdown of space economy verticals, including investment, innovation and those who can inspire a more promising sector. In the process, he helps readers understand how integral space is in our lives, how we can participate in it and how space exploration will continue to innovate our world.
9. Not Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginner’s Guide to Life in the Space Age
By Kelli Gerardi
Kellie Gerardi, an aerospace expert and popular science communicator, showcases how humanity is on an astronomical trajectory forward in the space sector, even without relying solely on rocket scientists. Gerardi’s own non-traditional history in the space industry indicates that our next step toward our advancement in space requires the contributions of engineers, artists and everyday citizens. She takes us on a tour of this unique period in history and holds encouraging advice for anyone who has dreamed of traveling in space.
Gerardi also offers candid insights on working in the commercial spaceflight sector and those working to create the golden age of space. Even if you have no space background or want to learn more about the future of space exploration, this book confirms that there is a space for anyone who is passionate about the industry. With a commitment to democratizing space, Gerardi offers guidance for aspiring astronauts and a front-row seat to the most exciting space age yet.
8. SpaceKind
By Loretta Whitesides
The creator of the SpaceKind leadership training program, Loretta Whitesides’ manifesto breaks down why the next step for humankind is to travel to space. She argues that we can find our greatest potential by preparing ourselves for space exploration. Building upon the insight and instruction in her book The New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring Out the Best in You, Whitesides’ space-directed leadership can be taught in training and seminars online or in traditional classrooms across the globe. Whitesides believes that the SpaceKind program is created for teams, staff and individuals ready to break down the everyday barriers and become acquainted with space.
7. Look Up: Our story with the stars
By Sarah Cruddas
Space exploration offers a lot of challenges and first-time opportunities. It can be an overwhelming prospect for those who aren’t well-acquainted with the sector. Sarah Cruddas provides an inspiring and insightful book about our future in space and why it should matter to us. As a kid, Sarah grew up loving space. She even worked in a fruit factory to fund her passion for the subject. Sarah then went on to study astrophysics and become a space journalist. In this book, Sarah explains why she has always been a passionate advocate for space exploration and makes a case for why space should matter to everyone. She documents the history and sacrifices humans have made to understand our place in the solar system. Despite challenges on Earth, Sarah also details how everything from mobile phones to medicine has been affected by space technology and how a new group of entrepreneurs creates new stories surrounding space. The inspirational and forward-thinking book highlights the importance of space and why we should pay attention to the universe above us.
6. Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
By Christian Davenport
Everyone loves a good drama and rivals and space entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos bring it to the table. This book tells the story of those billionaires who are putting their fortunes into the American space program. Decades after the first human walked on the moon, space barons — notably Musk, Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Paul Allen — are focused on Silicon Valley-level innovation to significantly reduce spaceflight costs and send humans further than NASA. While these entrepreneurs have already helped to innovate various industries, they are now reshaping their expertise and resources for space travel.
Based on years of research and exclusive interviews, author Christian Davenport highlights the tale of risk, adventure, competition and more as the world’s richest men seek to end the governments’ monopoly on space exploration. Davenport also details how bullish startups are in competition with long-established contractors and how these space leaders have personally clashed in creating this new space age. The book offers some insight into their fascinating visions and how they are shaping the industry.
5. The Overview Effect
By Frank White
In this eye-opening book, author Frank White describes that seeing Earth from a different perspective requires viewing it from space (or at least reading about it). Over 30 years ago, Frank White defined the term “Overview Effect” to describe the cognitive shift in awareness that results from viewing Earth from space.
The Overview Effect offers insights on space through the lens of 30 astronauts and cosmonauts in interviews and essays. White shows how these astronauts’ experiences of circling the Earth every 90 minutes and viewing it from above profoundly affected the perception of themselves and their world. White highlights how people who have never gone to space have also been affected by the experiences of these astronauts.
It’s an important book that helps people realize that their attitude does change after seeing Earth from these detailed perspectives; an experience that is often described as a universal phenomenon. As space travel undergoes a revolution, this book helps us tap into the desire to go to space and the incredible things that can come from it. In the newest edition, Frank describes how space exploration and settlement are the natural next steps in civilization’s evolution.
4. Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
By Mike Massimino
In this New York Times bestseller, astronaut Mike Massimino offers a look into the life of a space traveler. He provides a first-hand account of what it’s like to fly on a spaceship that goes from zero to 17,500 miles per hour. He details the experience of looking back on Earth from space and seeing the distinct line between day and night. He documents what it’s like to stand in front of the Hubble Space Telescope in need of repairs and wonder if it will place humankind’s mission to explore space at risk. Massimino allows every reader to take a walk in his spacesuit and show what life is truly like in microgravity.
Part memoir, Massimino also takes us into his background with dreams of flying to space. Growing up in a working-class Long Island family, he succeeded in getting into Columbia and
then MIT, but later flunk his first doctoral exam and was rejected three times by NASA before making it through the final round of astronaut selection.
The book takes readers through the sublime wonder and majesty of his first spacewalk, from losing friends in the Columbia shuttle accident to his enduring love for the Hubble Telescope — which he and his fellow astronauts saved on his final mission. Massimino features a beautiful ode to perseverance and how the power of collaboration and teamwork can make any hardship possible. This book lets us into a rare world where science and thrilling adventure collide, revealing what having “the right stuff” really means.
3. Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life
By Dr. Mae Jemison
In this well-written autobiography, Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space, details her childhood dream of becoming a scientist to her journey to NASA. Dr. Jemison has had an astonishing career that ranges from starting her chemical engineering degree at Stanford University to conducting experiments in life and material science aboard space missions. The story sings as Jemison recalls her high school science projects and travels in the Peace Corps. Although only white men were astronauts at the time, Jemison saw it merely as a barrier to break and was determined to meet her goal.
The autobiography is confident and inspiring, offering us glimpses into her wins and the hardships she encountered along the way. While this book is meant for children, anyone can get motivated through this accessible, easy reading book. The whole book is an incredible testimony to goal setting and the will to achieve them.
2. Orbital Perspective
by Ron Garan
Former astronaut Ron Garan experienced an extraordinary moment when he was stationed aboard the International Space Station for six months. He lived the experience of how human cooperation can help influence good will on Earth. In this book, Garan delves into the origins and global importance of the International Space Station, one of the most ambitious and technologically challenging constructions in human history in cooperation with several global nations.
Garan describes the very personal impact living aboard the ISS had on him. Now an active philanthropist focused on global projects that promote peace and ending hunger and poverty, Ron is determined to use the ISS as a model of cooperation to solve Earth’s greatest problems. Garan believes that on Earth, we have all the tools and resources we need to overcome these obstacles that hinder us from living in peace and prosperity. He argues we need to step outside our comfort zones and the paradigms that we’ve always confronted our challenges. Instead, Garan argues we need to dedicate ourselves to collaborative partnerships and processes. While this book reads as a partial travelogue, Ron goes beyond the genre and offers a call to action for us all to start caring about the most important space station of all: Earth.
1. Chasing Space
By Leland Melvin
In this enlightening memoir, former NASA astronaut and NFL player Leland Melvin shares his journey, while examining the intersection between community, perseverance and grace to help create optimum opportunities for success.
Although Melvin’s path to the stars was met with setbacks and injuries, he persevered and traveled to space. He ultimately became the first person in history to catch a pass in the National Football League and space.
The book details the hardships that he experienced, from sports-related injuries to losing his hearing while training with NASA, Leland says the loyalty to his astronaut family paid off. With partial hearing regained, he earned eligibility for space exploration and eventually served as a mission specialist for two flights aboard the Atlantis and worked on the International Space Station. The memoir is an uplifting story that looks at the people who helped support him, defying the odds to live out a unique destiny. All in all, Melvin’s story highlights a study on the science of achievement.
Honorable Mentions:
The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility
By Robert Zubrin
As the new space race remains underway, this book showcases the daring pioneers who are revolutionizing spaceflight and promising to transform our future. Robert Zubrin, a noted astronomical engineer, details the NewSpace sector’s potential in a visionary narrative grounded by a deep understanding of the sectors’ practical challenges. Based on decades of research on space technology, Zubrin shows how some of these projects can become a reality and makes a convincing case for why we need to advance our space footprint.
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
By Alan Stern and David Grinspoon
This book takes readers behind the science, personalities, politics, and public expectations that fueled one of the greatest space missions ever: The New Horizons’ mission to Pluto. It was an unparalleled event of new worlds and the most distant planetary exploration ever. The story of the men and women behind the mission, the politics behind the scenes, their ingenuity and the decades-long commitment to the project offers insights into what it took us to get us to this point. It also details plans for New Horizons’ next encounter. This enticing story of scientific discovery shows what humans can achieve when we work together.
Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight
By Amy Shira Teitel
Detailing the intertwined stories of two pilots, Jerrie Cobb and Jacqueline Cochran, Teitel details the competing visions these two female pioneers had for women in the space industry. A well-researched account of their interactions, the book makes use of letters that Teitel has found and reproduced. Although both women had competing visions, the biography highlights how these trailblazers fearlessly stepped into their roles, with their stories focusing on the shifting social and political and technological landscape of the time in the space program. These inspiring biographies are sure to resonate with space enthusiasts, feminists and historians for its rich and unique story — and the importance of these women in space.
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery
By Scott Kelly
In this stunning memoir, former astronaut Scott Kelly looks back on his record-breaking year in space aboard the International Space Station. The American record holder for the most consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly gives us an insider’s perspective on navigating the challenges of space’s hostile environment. He describes the effects on the body and the isolation, and the pressures of close cohabitation. Kelly also reflects on the feeling of being unable to help if tragedy strikes at home. Kelly brings humor and compassion to a book that offers serious self-reflection on his life spanning from his early years to his astounding career. The book offers meaningful insights into the triumphs of the human spirit and offers inspiration for humanity as he ponders the universe’s infinite wonder.
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
By Alan Stern and David Grinspoon
This book takes readers behind the science, personalities, politics, and public expectations that fueled one of the greatest space missions ever: The New Horizons’ mission to Pluto. It was an unparalleled event of new worlds and the most distant planetary exploration ever. The story of the men and women behind the mission, the politics behind the scenes, their ingenuity and the decades-long commitment to the project offers insights into what it took us to get us to this point. It also details plans for New Horizons’ next encounter. This enticing story of scientific discovery shows what humans can achieve when we work together.
Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight
By Amy Shira Teitel
Detailing the intertwined stories of two pilots, Jerrie Cobb and Jacqueline Cochran, Teitel details the competing visions these two female pioneers had for women in the space industry. A well-researched account of their interactions, the book makes use of letters that Teitel has found and reproduced. Although both women had competing visions, the biography highlights how these trailblazers fearlessly stepped into their roles, with their stories focusing on the shifting social and political and technological landscape of the time in the space program. These inspiring biographies are sure to resonate with space enthusiasts, feminists and historians for its rich and unique story — and the importance of these women in space.
