Lost In Space

Greg Klerkx

Jul. 2010 · Random House

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In Lost in Space, Greg Klerkx argues that ever since the triumphant Apollo moon missions, the Space Age has been stuck in the wrong orbit, and that NASA, the agency whose daring once fueled the world's extra-terrestrial vision, has been largely responsible for keeping it there. Stripped of its Cold War mandate, NASA has become an introverted technocracy whose signature post-Apollo projects - the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station - are perhaps the two most spectacular boondoggles of the modern era. Through it all, NASA has ignored, belittled and in some cases actively quashed the one concept that could change the equation for the future of humans in space: human spaceflight as a free market activity. Despite this, a new Space Age is, in fact, in the making, led by dreamers, investors, inventors and even renegades from NASA itself. Drawn from dozens of interviews, extensive research, and Klerkx's own experiences as a senior manager with the SETI Institute, Lost in Space chronicles the flashpoints where the space establishment and the 'alternative' space community are battling for competing visions. Like the dream of space exploration itself, Lost in Space is less about science or technology than it is about people: their motivations, their ideas, and how their life's work is driven by an almost biological need to reach for the stars. Written with intelligence, style and wit, it is an elegy for the brief, bright Space Age that was, as well as the first comprehensive chronicle of a dawning new Space Age that could literally change the course of humankind.

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Greg Klerkx is a former senior manager of the SETI Institute, an independent space exploration and research institution based in California's Silicon Valley. Trained as a journalist, he won numerous news-writing awards and now divides his time between London and San Francisco. Lost in Space is his first book.