Slingshot: Building the Largest Machine in Human History

Travel to space for the price of a train ticket—to the Moon for a little bit more.

"Slingshot does for the launch loop what Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise or Sheffield's Web Between the Worlds did for the space elevator." —Alastair Mayer Author of the T-Space Series

Slingshot is a love story—about a man, a woman, another man, another woman, some gender bending...and a machine, the largest ever built. Slingshot is a mystery—about a missing aviatrix, a conspiracy, a true-believer. Slingshot is an adventure—about following a dream, the ocean-deep, outer space. Slingshot is about constructing the first space launch-loop stretching 2,600 km between Baker and Jarvis Islands in the Equatorial Pacific. It's about high finance, intrigue, unlimited ambition, heroism, fanaticism, betrayal...and about opening space to the common person.

The setting is the day-after-tomorrow. Technology has advanced, but human ambition and greed remain unchanged. Alex Regent, Margo Jackson, and Klaus Blumenfeld reach for the stars as they blend their skills to create the world's first space launch-loop, backed by major software money. Environmental fanatic Lars Watson with his team of young eco-terrorists are funded by opposing financial interests, who will go to any length to halt the project. Reporter Lori Kutcher indiscriminately applies her own personal skills to ensure it is she who reports the unfolding events to a watching world.

While its accurate science and precise engineering will appeal to hard science-fiction buffs, Slingshot's major focus is the grand journey, the opening of outer space to the common person by men and women who loom larger than life as they work, play, and love.

© 2025 Starman Press (Audiobook): 9781968367176

Release date

Audiobook: 12 July 2025