Powersat: A Thriller of Technology, Terrorism, and Hope
About this ebook
Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. The experimental low-orbit spaceplane Astro falls to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. In the wake of this disaster is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of space.
Entrepreneur Dan Randolph is determined to provide energy to a desperate world. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the experimental spaceplane has left his company on the edge of bankruptcy.
Worse, Dan discovers the plane worked perfectly right up until the moment that saboteurs knocked it out of the sky. And whoever brought it down is willing and able to kill again to keep Astro grounded. . . .
Praise for Powersat
“[Bova] supplies a suspenseful ride and plenty of high-tech hardware.” —Publishers Weekly
“Tom Clancy-like danger and intrigue!” —Amazing
“A classic guy’s tale. . . . Bova is a spare writer who nevertheless crafts the perfect voice for each of his characters.” —San Antonio Express-News
Ratings and reviews
About the author
Ben Bova (1932-2020) was the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction, including Able One, Transhuman, Orion, the Star Quest Trilogy, and the Grand Tour novels, including Titan, winner of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. His many honors include the Isaac Asimov Memorial Award in 1996, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award “for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature” in 2008.
Dr. Bova was President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, and a former editor of Analog and former fiction editor of Omni. As an editor, he won science fiction’s Hugo Award six times. His writings predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), electronic book publishing, and much more.
In addition to his literary achievements, Bova worked for Project Vanguard, America’s first artificial satellite program, and for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, the company that created the heat shields for Apollo 11, helping the NASA astronauts land on the moon. He also taught science fiction at Harvard University and at New York City’s Hayden Planetarium and worked with such filmmakers as George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry.
