Escaping Gravity

My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age

By: Lori Garver

Narrated by: Lori Garver

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.

©2022 Lori Garver (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Fascinating and a must read for space enthusiasts

This was a fantastic look under the hood of what it's like working as a civil servant wanting change.

The struggle between entrenched ways and new ideas

Well read by the author and very engaging. The story of her career also covers the changes to how we get to space and her drive to see that happen. We'll worth the time.

interesting and informative

worth listening for any space enthusiast "behind the scenes" stories about NASA long and bumpy ride towards embracing private sector with pay per delivery contracts promising lowering the costs thus sustainability in space exploration

Outstanding Review of the Manned Space Program

I learned a lot about the politics of the US space program, and the difficulties in making progress in the face of entrenched interests.

Great insight in NASA Politics

Great insight into NASA political operations, and what it takes to move things forward. Recommend if you want to learn more about what it takes to maneuver and get things done.