Book Review: In Pursuit of the Moon – The Hunt for a Major NASA Contract

In Pursuit of the Moon – The Hunt for a Main NASA Contract by Invoice Townsend; iUniverse – a self-publishing imprint; 168 pages; 2019; Softcover; $13.99.

This can be a tell-all story that’s hardly ever advised. The writer takes the reader deep contained in the inner-workings of a real-life aerospace trade pursuit – vying for the ARES I Instrument Unit Avionics contract, launched by NASA in 2007. Ares I used to be the crew launch car that was being developed on the time by NASA as a part of the Constellation program, a precursor to at this time’s Artemis journey.

After forty-plus years with NASA, the writer particulars his becoming a member of of Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, in 2004, then taking thirty-five top-notch “Birkenstock-wearing engineers” to Huntsville, Alabama, to ascertain a brand new Ball Aerospace workplace designed to champion the chase for the contract. The competitors was stiff – an entrenched cabal of aerospace contractors who had dominated NASA’s human house flight program for many years.

You may get a way of the astronautical angst an individual can undergo simply by noting the titles of this six-part e book: “The State of affairs,” “Earlier than the Storm,” “The Proposal,” “The Down Choose,” “The Resolution,” and “The Aftermath.”

“So, with the good thing about excellent hindsight,” what did we do nicely, and what may we’ve got finished higher?,” Townsend writes.

That is an intimate take a look at how you can work with a significant authorities company, NASA, and the way the house company behaves and conducts itself with its contractor base…generally in methods you wouldn’t anticipate.

For these not aware of the aerospace trade, the writer’s intent is to pry your eyes open to what actually goes on. And for these within the aerospace trade, “maybe there’s a factor or two which you could be taught from my telling of this story,” Townsend explains. Furthermore, for these inside NASA, he has some choose phrases too!

Townsend has spent greater than fifty years within the aerospace trade, a distinguished profession with specific experience within the administration of main house flight packages. His reflections in regards to the individuals, the locations, and the paperwork makes it a worthy learn for all these on the market attempting to form a vibrant, yet-affordable house program for at this time.

For extra info on this e book, go to:

https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/794782-in-pursuit-of-the-moon