Book update

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm writing a book for Smithsonian Books/Harper Collins on commercial spaceflight. It's called The Entreprenauts: Visionaries and Daredevils of the New Space Age, and it's due on shelves next summer. That means I have through this year to write it. Since we're more than halfway through the year, it's a good time to take stock and see how well I'm holding to schedule.

As it turns out, I need to step up the pace. Actually, I need to hit the afterburners. I'll make it, but I have to cut back on non-essential activities. Like, unfortunately, blogging.

Much as I hate to do it, I'll need to tune into current events in the commercial space arena quite a bit less, and focus mainly on each chapter of the book as I write it. Means I'll be more of a spectator and a cheerleader for companies and people I happen not to be writing about in the book at the moment, and less of a reporter.

I'm still holding out for one last big spectacular trip I might possibly take before I have to turn in the book, but from here out I'll be traveling a lot less and writing the book a lot more until that sucker's done.

The field is moving way too fast now to keep track of all of it for the book, and I have to face it, there's no way this book can be up-to-the-minute. Best I can do is give a good treatment of the launch of the new space age, show some of what's been happening up to a certain, largely arbitrary cut-off, and use that to extrapolate where I think it's all heading. The result, I believe, will be an enduring, and entertaining, record of a truly important historical movement.

Meanwhile, tune into this blog every other week or so for my occasional posts on what's happening with the book and for glimpses of the people and machines I'm writing about--not necessarily breaking news, but stuff I think you'll find interesting.