From NASA to SpaceX, and from Space Shuttles to Starships. Here are the reflections of long-time NASA engineer Edgar Zapata providing a sense of the connections between these worlds. What lessons must we take to heart if we are to achieve our spacefaring future, sooner rather than later? Combining stories, experience, and unique insights, this book is a compilation and distillation of prior writings in a newly unified format. It is an essential read covering issues in space technology and policy, the barriers ahead, and the benefits of what may come. Combining the practical, lived experience of an engineer with work in future, advanced and innovative projects, this book presents perspectives making complex topics understandable through writing with distinct takeaways.