Overview

The inside look at how the battle of the space billionaires began and why it matters, Escaping Gravity is former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver's firsthand account of how a handful of revolutionaries outmaneuvered the system of political patronage and bureaucracy that threatened the space agency. The success of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, and countless other commercial space efforts were preceded by decades of work by a group of people Garver calls space pirates. As the head of the NASA transition team for President-elect Barack Obama and second-in-command of the agency, Garver drove policies and funding that enabled commercial competition just as the capabilities and resources of the private sector began to mature. She was determined to deliver more valuable programs, which required breaking the self-interested cycle controlled by Congress, the aerospace industry, entrenched bureaucrats, and hero-astronauts trying to protect their own profits and mythology. Garver reveals how--like the military--the space industrial establishment preferred to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on programs aimed to sustain jobs and contracts in key congressional districts over those that were more efficient and could deliver greater progress. Garver details how her quest to transform NASA put her in the crosshairs of these established, powerful interests who viewed her as a threat to the system that has centralized and controlled power since the 1950s. Including insider NASA conversations and insights on the epic battles that transitioned space access to private resources for a fraction of the cost, Escaping Gravity offers a blueprint for how to drive productive and meaningful government change.

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Lori Garver is a self-proclaimed 'space pirate, ' who took on NASA, the aerospace industry, and even members of Congress, as part of a tumultuous groundswell that helped launch the modern commercial space industry. Told without fear or favor, her compelling tale transcends the space industry and shows us, from the inside, how Washington works--who wins, who loses and who bears the scars. -- Christian Davenport, Washington Post space reporter and author of The Space Barons

Author Information

Lori Garver is a leading figure in the US space program who pioneered innovations that are transforming NASA. She was the principal advisor on aerospace issues to three presidential candidates and led the NASA transition team for President Obama. Garver served as the Deputy Administrator of the space agency from 2009 to 2013 and is the Founder of Earthrise Alliance, a philanthropic initiative addressing climate change, and cofounder of the Brooke Owens Fellowship, a program for collegiate women interested in space careers. She serves as an Executive in Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners and is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The recipient of the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Aerospace, Garver has been awarded three NASA Distinguished Service Medals. She lives in Washington, DC. Lori Garver is a leading figure in the US space program who pioneered innovations that are transforming NASA. She was the principal advisor on aerospace issues to three presidential candidates and led the NASA transition team for President Obama. Garver served as the Deputy Administrator of the space agency from 2009 to 2013 and is the Founder of Earthrise Alliance, a philanthropic initiative addressing climate change, and cofounder of the Brooke Owens Fellowship, a program for collegiate women interested in space careers. She serves as an Executive in Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners and is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The recipient of the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Aerospace, Garver has been awarded three NASA Distinguished Service Medals. She lives in Washington, DC. Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu. Grover Gardner has recorded more than 650 audiobooks since beginning his career in 1981. He's been named one of the Best Voices of the Century as well as a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine. Gardner has garnered over 20 AudioFile Earphones Awards and is the recipient of an Audio Publishers Association Audie Award, as well as a three-time finalist. In 2005, Publishers Weekly deemed him Audiobook Narrator of the Year. Gardner has also narrated hundreds of audiobooks under the names Tom Parker and Alexander Adams. Among his many titles are Marcus Sakey's At the City's Edge, as well as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and John Irving's The Cider House Rules. Gardner studied Theater and Art History at Rollins College and received a Master's degree in Acting from George Washington University. He lives in Oregon with his significant other and daughter.

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