This book is a fast-paced account supported by striking, compelling renderings of how spaceflight has been forever changed since NASA heralded the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program on January 18th, 2006. Spaceflight was once a clunky affair, ruled by inefficient cost-plus models that gravely hampered the rapid pace of innovation while extorting a tremendous ransom to the taxpayers.

In a single volume, you will embark on a thrilling journey of how major and lesser-known launcher and spacecraft manufacturers have devoted their resources to bring forward a vision of profit by rapid innovation offering transportation services from LEO through cis-lunar space and beyond Earth's sphere of influence. This book recognizes NASA's COTS program as a pivot point in the history of the space agency and worldwide space industry and charts two story arcs, before COTS (BC) and after COTS (AC). The reader will understand how much the space industry has benefitted from the introduction of COTS in the pursuit of making humankind a spacefaring civilization.

This book will feature numerous stunning, original illustrations, cross sections, close-up views and many more, meticulously crafted by renowned space artist Giuseppe De Chiara. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and these stunning images will capture the reader offering an exclusive intellectual experience.

Autorentext

Giuseppe De Chiara:

Giuseppe De Chiara was born in Naples (Italy) in 1968. He is an accomplished aerospace professional who has been employed in the European space industry for 25 years. He began his career as a designer of Parabolic Flights facilities designer and later transitioned to the ISS Program as a Training Manager and Operations Leader. De Chiara currently works as a System Engineer and Technical Manager. His professional life as an engineer and architect has nourished his early passion for illustration. The Illustration has deepened his professional experience. He has illustrated several articles since 2010 with the noted aerospace author Dwayne A. Day. Additionally, he has been a coauthor of four scientific papers dating from 2003 to 2012.

De Chiara has contributed with his artworks to several aerospace books like the ones by the late Steve Pace. In 2016 Giuseppe De Chiara teamed up with Michael H. Gorn to realize several books as the acclaimed "Spacecraft: 100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space" released in 2018 and the book "X-Planes from the X-1 to the X-60: An Illustrated History" released by Springer in 2021.

Davide Sivolella:

Davide Sivolella is an aerospace engineer based in the UK with professional experience spanning the airline and civil aircraft manufacturing industries. Fascinated by flight from an early age-particularly by spacecraft-he earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin (Italy), followed by a PgCert in Advanced Mechanical Engineering from Cranfield University (UK) and a Professional Diploma in Aviation Finance and Leasing from Dublin City College (Ireland). Born in July 1981, just months after Columbia's maiden flight, he developed a special fondness for the Space Shuttle program. This passion led him to author several well-received books published by Springer-Praxis, including To Orbit and Back Again, The Space Shuttle Program: Technologies and Accomplishments, and The Untold Stories of the Space Shuttle Program. He also wrote Space Mining and Manufacturing: Off-World Resources and Revolutionary Engineering Techniques, offering a compelling vision of how space-based mining and manufacturing could become key to Earth's economic future. Beyond his professional pursuits, Davide is an avid reader with interests spanning cosmology to philosophy, an enthusiastic cook, and a keen traveller who enjoys exploring new places worldwide.