The Launch

Ryan Richmond has dreamed about going to space since the age of seven. Reading space updates—and seeing pictures of Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface in National Geographic—was the ignition of this dream. At nineteen he sold his first company and employed the remnants of the Russian Space Program, three of the best space brains in the world. In his twenties he founded and sold two more companies and hired the most outstanding scientists and engineers from the European Space Authority. During his thirties, after selling his third company, he invested heavily in Internet start-ups, like Google, netting billions. Then he patiently waited until NASA's shuttle program came to an end and contracted the best brains in the U.S. Space program. Now, Ryan Richmond is in his forties, and still wants to go to space. The only problem is that the newly elected Administration and members of Congress don't have a current space program, and they want his!