Space: The Next Business Frontier

Rating:
Summary: This book is junk
Review: Lou Dobbs is a national embarrassment. He obviously doesn't know how to think straight, as this book clearly shows. It is totally unrealistic. Space is not the next business frontier unless we are willing to hand over the satellite launch business and space tourism business to the low-cost and reliable Chinese. And that's something Dobbs does not realize in his wildest fantasy. This guy has zero imagination and clearly doesn't know how to make money. I wish I could give it zero star as it doesn't deserve any. The author of this book belongs in a lunatic asylum.

Rating:
Summary: Book me on the next flight
Review: The timing couldn't be better on this book. Three things made me pick it up this week: the success of the Mars Observer and the resignation of the head of NASA along with the sale of GM's satellite division to Echostar. Big news stories, every one.

Though I'm sure that Mr. Dobbs (you can almost hear him reading this book in that CNN voice) and Mr. Newquist didn't write this book specifically with those events in mind, they do manage to be in the right place at the right time. They nail NASA for being a bloated bureaucracy but still praise its past achievements. And they dig pretty far down into the space industry (explaining, for instance, the strange relationship between Lockheed and Boeing--another recent headline).

Dobbs' knowledge of business serves him well here, and I can't think of any other space book that has really looked at space as a place where hopefully we'll all be doing business some day.

Rating:
Summary: Time to get back into space?
Review: Why has it taken so long for industrialized nations to get back into space in any meaningful way? Dobbs and Newquist tackle this question and hit the nail on the head with this book--pointing fingers when necessary and giving credit where it is due. This is a quick read that makes me think we have a shot at serious space business in the coming years. Excellent.