Rocketeers reading at the National Air & Space Museum

It's a dream come true for me--the chance to talk and sign books at the permanent home of SpaceShipOne. I'll be at the National Air & Space Museum's gift shop on the National Mall on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, July 20, from 3 to 5 p.m.

This is a pre-release event in tandem with the NewSpace 2007 conference, where the book will go on sale for the first time.

Next day, I'm to moderate a panel discussion with some of the rocketeers featured in my book at the conference. The details for that are still being worked out, so stay tuned.

Finally, on July 20, I'll read from the book and sign at the Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. That museum features a Burt Rutan-designed VariEze, the airplane that launched Rutan's career. The VariEze led directly to Rutan's design for SpaceShipOne, and that's one of the things I'll talk about.

You can keep tabs on these and my other upcoming appearances at my website: www.michaelbelfiore.com.

Rocketeers launching at NewSpace 2007

It's official: my forthcoming book, Rocketeers, will launch at the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace 2007 conference. The conference runs July 18-21 in Washington, DC, more than a week before the book's release to stores. Conference-goers will have the first opportunity to buy the book.

The Space Frontier Foundation is one of the premier organizations boosting commercial spaceflight, so this is the perfect place for my book launch.

The lineup of conference speakers so far includes Apollo moonwalker Edgar Mitchell, Ed White, author of the influential book The Overview Effect, Virgin Galactic chief pilot Alex Tai, Rocketplane Kistler Passenger Number One Reda Anderson, the FAA official in charge of commercial spaceflight, Patti Grace Smith, and lots of other prominent folks in this burgeoning industry.

Smithsonian Books will donate pre-release copies of my book to the Space Frontier Foundation, which means that 100 percent of the proceeds from sales of the book will support the foundation. I'll be doing signings at the conference and participating in other activities still to be finalized.

The supply of books at the conference will be limited, so midway through the conference, on Friday, July 20, I'll be doing a reading and signing at the National Air & Space Museum, just a couple of Metro stops away. Stay tuned for more on that.

Rocketeers excerpt

I have an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Rocketeers, up at the newly revamped michaelbelfiore.com.

Check it out and let me know what you think (yes, that's Tim Pickens riding his rocket bike). Let me know what you think of the new site too.

Zero-g super powers

I spoke this weekend with lunalight4r5d, the winner of the $75,100 eBay auction for last Thursday's zero-g flight with physicist Stephen Hawking. Lunalight4r5d, who wishes to remain anonymous, gave me the best endorsement of the zero-g experience I've heard yet.

"It's not really like being weightless in water," she said. "Water has its own weight. You're still experiencing something like a pressure. But this is the feeling of no pressure." Going weightless made her realize "how rarely we experience an entirely new physical sensation over your whole body, and that was just so different. I couldn't have really anticipated what it would feel like."

In fact, she said, it wasn't until she got back on the ground that she "understood the magic" of the experience. "It was like I had gained this momentary super power that I couldn't access any more. I felt like I should be able to just launch off the ground and go flying across the hotel lobby."

Like flying in a dream, Zero-G Corp. founder Peter Diamandis has described the weightless experience, and lunalight4r5d agreed.

In dreams, we're pure spirit, freed of the constraints of our bodies. For Hawking, unable to move most of his body because of a degenerative nerve disease, the difference between free fall and life under gravity seems more pronounced. But, really, his is the fate we all share: shackled to the ground, barely able to lift ourselves.

Hawking and other visionaries have said that we must settle space if we're to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs, and that may be true. But their space dream is equally inspired by the desire to set free the human spirit.

Lunalight4r5d comes from a family of philanthropists, and the eBay auction presented an irresistible opportunity to support the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, one of her favorite charities.

Sharing the Zero-G flight with one of this century's greatest minds pushed an already sublime experience into the realm of the surreal. "I really almost felt like I was a person reading about it in some history book in the future. The red apple floating around as a tribute to Isaac Newton, and just connecting him to the greats of history," she said of Hawking, "that was the most phenomenal experience."

Rocketeers off to the printers

Okay, well, not quite, but my role in creating the book is over, and now it's up to the production department at Smithsonian Books to input my final, handwritten changes to the layout, and ship it to the printer. My editor hopes to have bound galleys ready for reviewers by May 1, and then it goes on sale August 1.

Of course, my work is far from over. In fact, some would say it's just begun. Next comes promoting the book, which will mean doing lots of interviews and trying to get as many media impressions as I can.

Step one is to launch a revamped website at www.michaelbelfiore.com. I'll have excerpts, blurbs from advance readers, my schedule of appearances, and lots of other goodies. Stay tuned.

Destination Space

Looks like the Virgin Group has beat me to the punch with a commercial spaceflight book out a few months in advance of my Rocketeers.

I don't consider this book a true competitor, though, since it's published by one of the main players in the commercial spaceflight arena and apparently keeps its focus on that company's activities.

In that light, it's possible to see this as more of a public relations piece than as a work of journalism. Can anyone who has seen the book correct me if I'm wrong? Comments welcome!

My book is unaffiliated with any of the NewSpace companies and thus avoids any conflicts of interest. It also covers a broad range of endeavors, not just one.

When last I checked, I was still the only author of a book on this subject to report firsthand not only on the work of Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, but also on SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace, Rocketplane Kistler, Armadillo Aerospace, and many others, to present the first comprehensive view of the birth of commercial spaceflight.

From the latest Virgin Galactic newsletter, released Friday:

"Read all about the amazing Galactic story in Virgin Books' new publication 'Destination Space', which features Virgin Galactic.

Award winning writer Kenny Kemp, goes in search of the story behind the first commercial space flight, discovering the major players in the race and the science, business and politics behind this incredible breakthrough. At the centre of the story are the paying passenger astronauts who have demonstrated their passion and commitment to the project."

The book is available now in the U.K., and is scheduled for release in the U.S. on May 29.

Stay tuned for more news of Rocketeers.

Flying high with Stephen Hawking

How much is a zero gravity ride with the world's greatest physicist worth? $75,100, says the winner of an auction that just closed on eBay.

All of the proceeds will go to Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation. eBay member lunalight4r5d will enjoy hotel accommodations, dinner with Professor Hawking, and of course that weightless flight on Zero-G Corp.'s Boeing 727. The ship flies parabolic arcs to let passengers experience lunar, Martian, and zero gravity. The flight will take place on April 26.

No word yet on lunalight4r5d's secret identity.