Powersat: A Thriller of Technology, Terrorism, and Hope (The Grand Tour)

Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And in its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of space. America needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy. Worse, Dan discovers that 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. Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy idea as a campaign plank for the candidate she's grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck. Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they've figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West. A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.

Bova gets better and better, combining plausible science with increasingly complex fiction. —Los Angeles Daily News

Bova proves himself equal to the task of showing how adversity can temper character in unforeseen ways.

—The New York Times on Venus

Hard-charging... Bova keeps the pages turning.

—Publishers Weekly on The Rock Rats

Publishers Weekly

Bova's polemical near-future SF thriller will appeal most to established fans who share his pro-space exploration politics. After Dan Randolph's Astro Corporation loses its experimental space plane on re-entry to the atmosphere, Dan discovers that the plane was destroyed by a terrorist conspiracy headed by tall, bearded Saudi Asim al-Bashir, who wishes to sabotage Astro's plans to put satellites in geosynchronous orbit capable of beaming solar energy in microwave form to earth. Al-Bashir has powerful allies, among them oil magnate Wendell T. Garrison, but Dan can turn to his own friends, including a female staff member who penetrates al-Bashir's organization. Dan later recruits to his cause some independent-minded FBI agents and Sen. Jane Thornton, with whom he renews their old affair (despite Jane's being secretly married to a senator running for president). While the straightforward motivations of both heroes and villains verge on the simplistic and the plot holds no surprises as it builds to a climactic confrontation over Washington, D.C., the author supplies a suspenseful ride and plenty of high-tech hardware. Agent, Barbara Bova. (Jan. 13) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

An entrepreneur is working on an array of geosynchronous satellites to gather and beam solar energy to earth-based generators. But his plan for breaking the power of oil cartels is wrecked by saboteurs who are willing and able to kill again to keep his dreams grounded Investigating the murder of his microbiologist brother, Paul Cochrane follows the trail from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to investigate his brother's work on a process that could produce a limitless supply of free energy to power the world. In the aftermath of a terrible space accident, spaceplane scientist Dan Randolph, who designed the vehicle, realizes that his experiment was sabotaged and must outmaneuver terrorists, the government, and his creditors in order to prove himself