Liftoff: The inside story of Elon Musk, SpaceX and the dramatic origins of the world’s leading rocket company

The company which chsnged rockets. This is all about the early days of how the conpany started and finally succeeded in successfully launching Falcon 1. The same author has written Reentry which covers the Falcon 9 story. You learn about the people,the hard work, the highs and lows which have changed things for the world Not the faster, better, cheaper failures of ZZZNASA in the 1990s, but the better way, cheaper and faster of Musk and SpaceX. Well worth reading and learning about a Yes, it can be done approach to things.

I got this book as I recently became an avid follower of the modern day space race. But what I didn't know much about was how & why Elon Musk got started with Space X. Eric Berger takes the reader from the beginning right up to the successful first flights of the falcon 1 & how that led on to the falcon 9. You don't need an engineering degree to follow this book. It focuses primarily on the human stories, the struggles and the hardship and the joyous moments too. The author was given full access to the staff, and weaves a great narrative from their accounts that's both an enjoyable read and very insightful. He doesn't shy away from hard truths, Elon Musk does not always come up smelling of roses & it's all the better for that.

The first chapter or two were a little slow and seemed thin on detail, hence the four rather than five stars. After that though, the book quickly turns into a nail biting roller-coaster ride that only increases in intensity as the story progresses. It's also a fascinating isight into what appears to be a pivotal moment for the aerospace industry. Well worth anyone's time.

This book covers the early days of SpaceX up to the successes of the Falcon 9. I found it it to be a well written and coherent tale - there are many parallel stories of the personnel and they are told without losing the timeline! I would definitely recommend this.

An exciting and detailed expose of the early years of SpaceX. Well recommended.

I'm a huge Elon fan, I follow him relentlessly and read everything I can. This book takes you on a fantastic journey from the mad hat vision to where SpaceX is now. What I like about the book is the way the employees are depicted. We all know Elon is a great visionary but without such a great tribe he wouldn't be as successful. The stories are fascinating and demonstrate the dedication of the employees at SpaceX, they all believed in the vision and gave up so much to make it happen. I think this book should be dedicated to the fantastic staff who helped make Elons vision come to reality. Great read

Very well put together story. Extraordinary happenings on the way to Falcon 9 success.

In the summer of 2019, I relived the moon landing through two great pieces of audiovisual media. The BBC World Service podcast "13 Minutes To The Moon", a deep dive into the entire Apollo programme, and the same story told visually in Todd Douglas Miller's astonishing "Apollo 11", which I would urge you to see on as big a screen as possible. They both reawakened a long dormant interest in space for me. I read a lot of tech news, so had vague awareness of the big milestones of SpaceX, but can't claim to have followed them. So from that point on, I immersed myself in both the spaceflight history of a half century or more ago, and the spaceflight present; where once or twice a month - sometimes once or twice a *week*, SpaceX put a payload in orbit then bring back the first stage of the rocket that did it. Kennedy may have said, "we do these things not because they were easy, but because they are hard"; yet SpaceX have made launches seem as routine as a supermarket shop. Eric Berger's book shows you, starting from zero, how they got there - through teamwork and the efforts of many individuals, many of whose stories we hear in detail as the narrative thrums along. Like so many American journalists. Berger has the ability to conjure an evocative sense of place and time; and there is one sequence in particular that cries out to be dramatised in a big budget movie one day. If there is a downside then its an inevitable one when dealing with billionaires like Musk. There's no doubt the book has benefited from astonishing levels of access to the key players, but there are only a couple of places that are less than hagiographic in their treatment of his flawed genius. But this is a minor quibble, because it's not about Musk.

Why? I don’t even know where to begin. Because I am shook with awe and excitement and sympathy and empathy of the things that have transpired on multiple fronts since the dawn of the SpaceX founding. This story explores the incredible timeline and effort and resources and sacrifices and terrifying ordeals and emotions that so many remarkable individuals had made and given to make the ever-old dream of reaching the Heavens. What SpaceX has achieved for Humanity! Is nothing short of incredible incredible incredible. That is the most simplified statement I can make to summarise the entirety of what has been achieved thus far. I am glad that there is a most accessible story of what it took to make the strides that; in my opinion, is akin to landing humanity on the moon. What you ‘must’ understand in all levels of this, is that rocket science is bloody hard. And founding and sustaining a space company is even more hard. From the get go SpaceX and its team have faced obstacle after obstacle with overwhelming forces that, by all odds, made the any success a near impossibility. Yet the team described in this story proved that with great focus and an unencumbered tenacity to push forward, that they can make a stand and shake systems to their core. As you may tell, I am an avid advocate for space exploration, and indeed, Musk’s ventures to further the progress of Humanity. I can only imagine that the sky’s the limit, nay, that the solar system and beyond; is the limit for this collective of thoughtful and committed citizens of the world. Whatever your thoughts on Musk himself or even the company, I highly recommend this story of the origin story of SpaceX. As it alludes also to many themes, including: what it means to be on the edge of bleeding progress and what it costs in everything non-monetary.

Contains lots of interesting stories of the early SpaceX days. The book includes descriptions and stories of the early company members. Very entertaining book.

Si no tienes problemas con el idioma, el testimonio de Berger resulta muy ilustrativo de la vida durante los primeros días de una de las empresas más revolucionarias de los últimos años. Es interesante ver no sólo como a medida que los proyectos se escalan también se escalan los problemas y las ingeniosas formas de solucionar uno tras otro. Narrativamente es poderoso y está bien escrito de forma que el hilo temporal se mantiene y en ocasiones se siente como leer una novela. Gran obra.

Super livre qui retrace les premières années de SpaceX. E. Musk à failli y laisser sa chemise tant les défis à relever étaient énormes. Au delà de l’histoire, c’est aussi des principes de management intéressants.

One of the best non-fiction books I've read. Not only does the Berger tell a story that seems so unbelievable, he also writes it like a fast paced movie screenplay with tremendous emotion. I found myself gasping for breath while reading several parts. Quickest read for a book this size in a long long time for me. Top tier, highly recommended 👌👌