Nicholas Schmidle’s remarkable account of the commercial space program, Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut, is a book that adeptly jumps between our celestial aspirations and our human, earthbound limitations ... The first third of the book provides a riveting account of the underreported commercial space race, which has up until now lacked a worthy storyteller ... where this book truly shines, where it feels singular, is not in the how but in the why ... We go to space because of what’s on earth — our communities, our families, our children and the perpetuation of humanity. This, it seems, is one of the conclusions Schmidle reaches in his deeply reported and deeply personal book. It is a masterly work, a reminder of what should inspire us all.
Schmidle reconstructs the decade between Branson’s promise and Alsbury’s accident, in a cinematic style that moves seamlessly in and out of characters’ inner monologues ... Schmidle’s careful attention to detail pays off in fluid, precise prose, even as the story settles into the familiar contours ... He narrates Stucky’s thoughts with moment-by-moment clarity that conceals the painstaking work that has gone into piecing together this collage of interviews, emails, videos and news accounts. High-stakes test flights are treated to this enhanced replay, but so are other moments: Stucky having dinner at home with his second wife, Cheryl Agin, or reading a Facebook message from Dillon. Schmidle is determined to make sense of all it, frame by frame ... Schmidle's care over these terrestrial scenes sets this book apart from more familiar representations of airborne masculinity.
The writing [...] is okayish, except when Schmidle aims for some higher effect ... Cutting through all this, there is an interesting book trying to get out. This is about Branson and Rutan but also about Bezos and Musk and the whole landscape of private sector space ... The clearest thing to emerge, perhaps unintentionally, from this book is that space will always be much riskier than any other form of travel. Having read Test Gods, I won’t be accepting any freebies from Virgin Galactic; life’s already too short ... Overlong, overpadded, unfocused and far too self-conscious, this is, nevertheless, an interesting book. Its real subject is the quasi-religious longing to go beyond our earth-bound lives. But also it warns us that space is hard, perhaps too hard.
Schmidle is a talented journalist, but his achievement getting behind the scenes at Virgin Galactic, one of Richard Branson’s most sensational and expensive endeavors, is especially impressive ... Throughout, Schmidle delivers plenty of captivating drama ... similar stories will be told about competing ventures like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin or Elon Musk’s SpaceX, but Schmidle’s agile, compassionate narrative serves as an exciting first word on the subject. A candid and revealing portrayal of extraordinary people striving to breach one of humanity’s final frontiers.
New Yorker staff writer Schmidle (To Live or to Perish Forever) tells the exuberant, guts-and-glory tale of Virgin Galactic’s efforts to travel to space. Vivid portraits bring to life the people behind the bold project ... With brisk prose, extensive interviews, and plenty of panache, Schmidle captures 'the difference between fighter pilots and everybody else.' The result is a page-turner, perfect for anyone in search of a story about the incredible coming within reach.
