Touchdown

Elon Musk, SpaceX, and the Limitless Future of Reusable Spaceflight

ERIC BERGER

The behind-the-scenes story of the most important rocket ever built – SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 – and the people who brought humankind one giant leap closer to Mars

SpaceX began with a simple distinct goal: to put a single-engine rocket into orbit. Achieving that goal in 2008 was ground-breaking, but not revolutionary – humanity has been putting rockets into orbit for over 60 years.

What SpaceX has done in the decade since, however, is truly transformative. Since 2008 the company has launched more than 120 missions, developed 3 new rockets, flown 10 astronauts (and counting) into orbit, begun testing Starship, the craft that promises to take humans to Mars, and now operates more satellites in space than any other company – or country – in the world.

SpaceX’s massive success has been made possible by one fundamental breakthrough that will enable humans to return to the Moon and then forge ahead to Mars: the ability to launch a rocket into orbit, guide it back to Earth’s surface safely and launch it again, and again, and again. Through the eyes of engineers on test stands in Texas, the launchpads in Florida and the factory floor in California, TOUCHDOWN tells the story of this revolutionary reusable rocket, the Falcon 9, and the behind-the-scenes drama as SpaceX built the future of human space exploration.

Eric Berger has been a reporter and editor in Houston for more than two decades. After a long career at the Houston Chronicle, he joined Ars Technica in 2015 as the site’s senior space editor, covering SpaceX, NASA and everything beyond. A certified meteorologist, he also maintains a widely read weather forecasting website for the greater Houston area, Space City Weather. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of Hurricane Ike at the Chronicle in 2008.

AGENT

Peter Tallack

PUBLISHER

University of Chicago Press

PUBLICATION

Spring 2024

STATUS

Manuscript due autumn 2023

LENGTH

85,000 words

RIGHTS SOLD

• World English (University of Chicago Press)

• Japan (Kagaku-dojin)

Dead Minds

Why Thinking about Immortality Breaks Our Brains

JESSE BERING

A provocative exploration of the curious operations of our mortal minds as we try to glimpse behind the veil

Are stories of near-death experiences, apparitions and memories of previous lives tantalizing glimmers of conscious minds beyond death? Or are they reflections of our own living brains giving credence to the patently absurd?

So asks psychologist Jesse Bering in DEAD MINDS, a wide-ranging enquiry into the strangest – and most elusive – question that humans ask: what happens when we die? And what does the way we think about life after death – the way we’re able to think about it – say about the workings of our mind and brain?

Why are at least eight out of ten of us so unbothered by the idea of consciousness surviving death, given that it violates the most basic premises of neuroscience? Did evolution favour a cognitive system that convinces us that we are psychologically everlasting? And if you pop a breath-mint into your mouth right before you die, can you still taste it on the other side?

Drawing on some of the most baffling cases in the annals of paranormal research, Bering juxtaposes his own trailblazing work with the storied career of the late Dr Ian Stevenson – the most polarizing parapsychologist of the past century.

Jesse Bering is a research psychologist and author. His writing has appeared in Scientific American, Slate, New York magazine, the Guardian, and the New York Times, among others, and his work has been featured on NPR, the BBC, and more. He has appeared on ‘Conan’, ‘Chelsea Lately’, and ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman’. The author of THE BELIEF INSTINCT, WHY IS THE PENIS SHAPED LIKE THAT?, PERV and SUICIDAL, he is the director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago. He lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.

AGENT

Jeff Shreve

PUBLISHER

PublicAffairs

PUBLICATION

2 May 2023

STATUS

Proofs

LENGTH

95,000 words

RIGHTS SOLD

• World English (PublicAffairs)

For the Culture

The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be

MARCUS COLLINS

An award-winning marketer for the likes of Beyoncé, Budweiser and the Brooklyn Nets argues that cultural engagement is the most powerful vehicle for influencing behaviour

We all try to influence others in our daily lives. We are all marketers, whether you are a manager motivating your team, an employee making a big presentation, an activist staging a protest, a bundle of nerves asking your crush on a date, a coach trying to get the most out of your players, or a teacher trying to encourage your students. In FOR THE CULTURE, Marcus Collins shares cultural insights for everyone, no matter your background, to empower you to inspire collective behavioural change.

Collins starts with a simple observation: to effectively engage with any community, we first need to think hard about what we will contribute to that community. Cultural influence is impossible without cultural participation. In FOR THE CULTURE he begins by unpacking the origins of culture and its core relationship to identity, before diving into the specifics of how we leverage the power of culture and what happens when cultural connection goes wrong. With a deep perspective based on a century’s worth of data and designed for our hyper-connected light-speed world, the book demystifies influence and marketing for readers from all walks of life.

Marcus Collins is a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and a recent inductee to the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement. Before serving as chief consumer connections officer at Doner Advertising, Collins led social engagement at Steve Stoute’s advertising agency, Translation. His strategies and creative contributions have led to the success of Budweiser’s ‘Made In America’ music festival, and the Brooklyn Nets’ ‘Hello Brooklyn!’ and State Farm’s ‘Cliff Paul’ campaigns – among others. Prior to his advertising tenure, Collins worked on iTunes + Nike sport music initiatives at Apple and ran digital strategy for Beyoncé.

AGENT

Peter Tallack

PUBLISHER

Bloomsbury

PUBLICATION

7 November 2023

STATUS

Proofs

LENGTH

272 pages

RIGHTS SOLD

• US & Canada (Bloomsbury)