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SpaceX #1
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
“A colorful page-turner.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review “As important a book on space as has ever been written.” —Homer Hickam, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rocket Boys The dramatic inside story of the historic flights that launched SpaceX—and Elon Musk—from a shaky start-up into the world’s leading-edge rocket company. SpaceX has enjoyed a miraculous decade. Less than 20 years after its founding, it boasts the largest constellation of commercial satellites in orbit, has pioneered reusable rockets, and in 2020 became the first private company to launch human beings into orbit. Half a century after the space race it is private companies, led by SpaceX, standing alongside NASA, pushing forward into the cosmos, and laying the foundation for our exploration of other worlds. But before it became one of the most powerful players in the aerospace industry, SpaceX was a fledgling start-up, scrambling to develop a single workable rocket before the money ran dry. The engineering challenge was immense; numerous other private companies had failed similar attempts. And even if SpaceX succeeded, they would then have to compete for government contracts with titans such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who had tens of thousands of employees and tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. SpaceX had fewer than 200 employees and the relative pittance of $100 million in the bank. In Liftoff , Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica , takes readers inside the wild early days that made SpaceX. Focusing on the company’s first four launches of the Falcon 1 rocket, he charts the bumpy journey from scrappy underdog to aerospace pioneer. We travel from company headquarters in El Segundo, to the isolated Texas ranchland where they performed engine tests, to Kwajalein, the tiny atoll in the Pacific where SpaceX launched the Falcon 1. Berger has reported on SpaceX for more than a decade, enjoying unparalleled journalistic access to the company’s inner workings. Liftoff is the culmination of these efforts, drawing upon exclusive interviews with dozens of former and current engineers, designers, mechanics, and executives, including Elon Musk. The enigmatic Musk, who founded the company with the dream of one day settling Mars, is the fuel that propels the book, with his daring vision for the future of space. Filled with never-before-told stories of SpaceX’s turbulent beginning, Liftoff is a saga of cosmic proportions.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2021
996 people are currently reading
7823 people want to read
About the author
Eric Berger
2 books137 followersEric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from new space to NASA policy. Eric has an astronomy degree from the University of Texas and a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri. He previously worked at the Houston Chronicle for 17 years, where the paper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2009 for his coverage of Hurricane Ike. A certified meteorologist, Eric founded Space City Weather and lives in Houston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 618 reviews
April 6, 2021
Great first-hand accounts of the early days of SpaceX and the work that went into getting the Falcon 1 into orbit. Loved reading it!
Some well-meaning constructive criticism. The reason I didn't give this five stars is that it felt rushed and narrow. I feel like there's this whole larger context of what the launch market looked like, why Elon and other engineers thought this was possible financially and engineering-wise with their small team, and what some of the hardest or most elegant design challenges and decisions were.
How did these team members contextualize, learn, test, and make these decisions?
The series of events were certainly portrayed in detail but I felt that the first-person decision making and rationale was under-described.
How does one learn to become a great engineer especially in their mid-twenties? Is it just a lot of hands-on experience under more senior mentors? How did Elon learn? How has SpaceX continued to innovate as it has pushed into uncharted engineering territory? I feel like these answers deserve much more elaboration and investigation than I've seen before. That's what I really want to know.
Some well-meaning constructive criticism. The reason I didn't give this five stars is that it felt rushed and narrow. I feel like there's this whole larger context of what the launch market looked like, why Elon and other engineers thought this was possible financially and engineering-wise with their small team, and what some of the hardest or most elegant design challenges and decisions were.
How did these team members contextualize, learn, test, and make these decisions?
The series of events were certainly portrayed in detail but I felt that the first-person decision making and rationale was under-described.
How does one learn to become a great engineer especially in their mid-twenties? Is it just a lot of hands-on experience under more senior mentors? How did Elon learn? How has SpaceX continued to innovate as it has pushed into uncharted engineering territory? I feel like these answers deserve much more elaboration and investigation than I've seen before. That's what I really want to know.
March 9, 2021
Essential reading for SpaceX fans
Not only is this book a comprehensive account of the early years of SpaceX, it's also brilliantly written and fun to read. If you're at all interested in space travel, tickets or Turkish goulash, read this book.
Not only is this book a comprehensive account of the early years of SpaceX, it's also brilliantly written and fun to read. If you're at all interested in space travel, tickets or Turkish goulash, read this book.
December 12, 2020
Disclaimer: I would like to thank the author and publisher for providing a review copy of this book.
Liftoff by Eric Berger clearly and realistically describes the historic journey of SpaceX as it races from an idea in Elon Musk's mind to literally revolutionizing the aerospace industry. Although the descriptions of SpaceX's accomplishments of designing, building, and launching a rocket into orbit cheaply and quickly are impressive, this is primarily the story of the first employees and their experiences while SpaceX was still a small startup fighting for its existence. Liftoff shows the reader what it was like for these workers to design, plan, build, troubleshoot, and launch their historic Falcon 1 rocket. This book also gives the reader insights into events that have been covered in the media over the past 20 years or so. For example, I was delighted to learn more about the context and anecdotes of the people on the ground surrounding my vague memories of media articles around 2005 about a plucky startup trying to launch a rocket from a remote tropical island and facing problems with saltwater corrosion in their rocket.
Although it is a non-fiction, while reading it, I kept thinking about stories like "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert Heinlein and "Moonbase" by Ben Bova. The story that Liftoff describes completely feels like science fiction come real. Readers that are interested in space development, the aerospace industry, and even high-tech startups will surely enjoy this book.
(It was a nice touch to include the actual recipe for Bulent Altan's "Turkish Goulash", as it was mentioned several times.)
Liftoff by Eric Berger clearly and realistically describes the historic journey of SpaceX as it races from an idea in Elon Musk's mind to literally revolutionizing the aerospace industry. Although the descriptions of SpaceX's accomplishments of designing, building, and launching a rocket into orbit cheaply and quickly are impressive, this is primarily the story of the first employees and their experiences while SpaceX was still a small startup fighting for its existence. Liftoff shows the reader what it was like for these workers to design, plan, build, troubleshoot, and launch their historic Falcon 1 rocket. This book also gives the reader insights into events that have been covered in the media over the past 20 years or so. For example, I was delighted to learn more about the context and anecdotes of the people on the ground surrounding my vague memories of media articles around 2005 about a plucky startup trying to launch a rocket from a remote tropical island and facing problems with saltwater corrosion in their rocket.
Although it is a non-fiction, while reading it, I kept thinking about stories like "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert Heinlein and "Moonbase" by Ben Bova. The story that Liftoff describes completely feels like science fiction come real. Readers that are interested in space development, the aerospace industry, and even high-tech startups will surely enjoy this book.
(It was a nice touch to include the actual recipe for Bulent Altan's "Turkish Goulash", as it was mentioned several times.)
July 6, 2021
A quick, interesting, but ultimately shallow read into the life of famed capitalist Elon Musk. Rather than telling a story that acknowledges years of employee mismanagement and abuse, the author tells a story through the lens of heroics about people who mostly gave up everything stable in their lives. Scores of employees forced to live through hellish 80-90 hour work weeks in support of Musks vision of “making 1 trillion billion dollars, or something”. Just kidding, it was because he wanted to pioneer cheap space travel by privatizing it. Admittedly, a remarkable concept, and if you’re reading this then you must be acutely aware of the successes that SpaceX has achieved over the last 15 or so years. No small feat I might add. The main complaint that I took away from this read is not the telling of the story. The details are all there. It’s how the details are framed. There were countless scenarios where people could have been hurt, or killed, and the framing of the storytelling remained “well they were doing a really cool thing that no one has ever done, also hey, check out this goulash recipe”.
I guess I’m just left with a lingering question in this case. Is it really cool to possibly destroy the lives of everyone around you? Success is really cool, but at what cost?
I guess I’m just left with a lingering question in this case. Is it really cool to possibly destroy the lives of everyone around you? Success is really cool, but at what cost?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2023
Brave, enterprising, dedicated, passionate. These words describe the men and women of SpaceX.
February 8, 2025
Wow wow wow that was such a good book! One of my friends recommended it to me and I finally got around to reading it, and honestly I don’t know why I waited so long. I would’ve done anything to work at SpaceX during the early days. Once I’m done my education I’ll probably try to work for a crazy startup like it because it seems so fun.
I’m working at an aerospace lab right now and this is literally why I go to work every day. If you read this and get an adrenaline rush, please consider aerospace engineering as a career.
The book content could be boring at times if you don’t care about aerospace (except what crazy person doesn’t care about aerospace, it’s literally outer space what’s cooler than that). Also the employees were workaholics but those are my kind of people. I don’t know, maybe this is delusional but wouldn’t it be wonderful to be working towards something you believe in so much you’re ok with working crazy shifts, no vacation, crazy commutes?
I’m working at an aerospace lab right now and this is literally why I go to work every day. If you read this and get an adrenaline rush, please consider aerospace engineering as a career.
The book content could be boring at times if you don’t care about aerospace (except what crazy person doesn’t care about aerospace, it’s literally outer space what’s cooler than that). Also the employees were workaholics but those are my kind of people. I don’t know, maybe this is delusional but wouldn’t it be wonderful to be working towards something you believe in so much you’re ok with working crazy shifts, no vacation, crazy commutes?
April 16, 2021
Can't say I wasn't warned by the title. Berger focuses on the period leading to SpaceX's first successful launch, developing his story largely through profiles of engineers who led the project. Though Berger does manage to convey how precarious SpaceX's early days were, the book left me unsatisfied. There's not much here for anyone looking to understand the history of commercial space exploration, or its prospects going forward.
May 8, 2021
This book is not about Elon Musk. Rather, it’s about the team that built Space X - their travails, their commitment, their dogged devotion to the end goal. Every good team requires a good captain and while the captain of the Space X team is undoubtedly Elon Musk, he wouldn’t have been as good if it wasn’t for a great team that he put together. This book is all about them. A must read this summer!
March 20, 2021
This is very nearly 5 stars for me (and I may come back and change it yet!), but I'm a sucker for insider engineering stories, even more so if they deal with space travel.
This is a great brisk book on the early days of SpaceX. Don't worry if you suspect you might know a lot of the material already. Chances are, you do not. The book was written and published with Musk's blessing, so it draws on first hand information from interviews with early employees that simply would not be public otherwise.
The scope is pretty narrow. It really is just SpaceX, and just the Falcon 1 era (4 launch attempts total) that proved that SpaceX could get to orbit. This is not a Musk biography (though of course he always looms large), and doesn't cover any of the more recent Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, or astronaut missions, except as a kind of a "where are they now" summary and to draw the connection to the Mars vision that underpins all of their activities.
There is plenty left to talk about. This is an intimate story about hero engineers, pressure, and technical achievements that put SpaceX into space just before they completely exhausted the money, resources, and time they had to do it. Things failed and were fixed in preposterous ways, the company was constantly swimming upstream against conventional wisdom, and both good and bad luck reared it's head at critical moments. If nothing else, after reading this you will realize just how close SpaceX came to total outright failure before becoming the indisputably dominant force that they are today.
The book was written by one of the Ars Technica writers; if you read their articles routinely then you can expect the same vibe here, just in long form.
This is a great brisk book on the early days of SpaceX. Don't worry if you suspect you might know a lot of the material already. Chances are, you do not. The book was written and published with Musk's blessing, so it draws on first hand information from interviews with early employees that simply would not be public otherwise.
The scope is pretty narrow. It really is just SpaceX, and just the Falcon 1 era (4 launch attempts total) that proved that SpaceX could get to orbit. This is not a Musk biography (though of course he always looms large), and doesn't cover any of the more recent Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship, or astronaut missions, except as a kind of a "where are they now" summary and to draw the connection to the Mars vision that underpins all of their activities.
There is plenty left to talk about. This is an intimate story about hero engineers, pressure, and technical achievements that put SpaceX into space just before they completely exhausted the money, resources, and time they had to do it. Things failed and were fixed in preposterous ways, the company was constantly swimming upstream against conventional wisdom, and both good and bad luck reared it's head at critical moments. If nothing else, after reading this you will realize just how close SpaceX came to total outright failure before becoming the indisputably dominant force that they are today.
The book was written by one of the Ars Technica writers; if you read their articles routinely then you can expect the same vibe here, just in long form.
July 26, 2023
No bc that was interesting 👀 this was SpaceX propaganda for sure but well constructed!
December 22, 2021
7/10⭐️
August 18, 2021
I love books that tell the stories of great engineering projects. The best ones are those that make you feel the pressure of solving technical problems with invariably challenging cost and schedule constraints so that you also share the elation when success comes. This book is mostly successful in this, and that is why it was well worth reading. While the author very rarely quotes individuals directly, it is clear he extensively interviewed many of the key figures. He includes many details both significant and incidental that give the story a vibrancy and authenticity which fosters that sense of vicarious experience.
My preference would have been for a bit more detail about some of the technical challenges faced and the solutions developed to overcome them. While it does touch on a couple specific engineering problems, this is a non-technical history of a very technical effort. The plus side is that the author's preference for general readability also helps him steer clear of getting bogged down in some of the early lawsuits SpaceX was involved in. Rather than rehashing sequential arguments and timelines and rulings which could fill their own (boring) book, the author briefly points out the subject and the result of a couple key legal battles in a few sentences each.
The other key minefield the author navigates is being impartial in a history about a man and a company that inspire many boosters and detractors. I would estimate that the author has a quite favorable opinion of Musk and SpaceX, but I think he genuinely tried to maintain a journalistic impartiality rather than pandering to SpaceX's enthusiastic fans. It certainly includes many facts that reflect quite favorably on SpaceX such as the speed with which they moved, the unprecedented nature of their early (eventual) success for a company of their size/resources, and the seismic shift brought about in the launch industry. The point though is that those are actually facts.
My preference would have been for a bit more detail about some of the technical challenges faced and the solutions developed to overcome them. While it does touch on a couple specific engineering problems, this is a non-technical history of a very technical effort. The plus side is that the author's preference for general readability also helps him steer clear of getting bogged down in some of the early lawsuits SpaceX was involved in. Rather than rehashing sequential arguments and timelines and rulings which could fill their own (boring) book, the author briefly points out the subject and the result of a couple key legal battles in a few sentences each.
The other key minefield the author navigates is being impartial in a history about a man and a company that inspire many boosters and detractors. I would estimate that the author has a quite favorable opinion of Musk and SpaceX, but I think he genuinely tried to maintain a journalistic impartiality rather than pandering to SpaceX's enthusiastic fans. It certainly includes many facts that reflect quite favorably on SpaceX such as the speed with which they moved, the unprecedented nature of their early (eventual) success for a company of their size/resources, and the seismic shift brought about in the launch industry. The point though is that those are actually facts.
May 23, 2021
If this wasn’t about Musk, it’d be a great sci-fi novel! Enthralling!
Quotes:
1. Immediately after T−0, humans lose all control over a rocket.
2. Starhopper, he explained to the boys, is made from stainless steel, the same stuff in pots and pans. This stainless steel, however, had the look of being left on a stovetop’s open flame for too long.
3. After perusing Starhopper at sunset, he spent several hours touring his rocket shipyard in South Texas.
4. Brian Bjelde was oblivious to Mars’s close approach and Musk’s dreams that summer.
5. He still speaks with the same earnestness about Mars. Only a goal that seemed preposterous in 2002 now merely seems audacious.
6. A failed mission is just unplanned rapid disassembly.
7. But most of all, he channelled a preternatural force to move things forward. Elon Musk just wants to get shit done.
8. It was this marathon sprint. It always felt like we were a sprint away, but it just kept going.
9. The white rocket, with a stark black interstage, stood on the launchpad venting oxygen into the tropical breeze.
10. Time was money. This window to reach Mars and make humanity a multiplanetary species, Musk fears, may not remain open forever. And Musk’s own lifetime was finite. This brutal devotion to speed got results.
11. The first Falcon 1 launch attempt came a mere three years and ten months after Musk started SpaceX. The company reached “space” in four years and ten months. It made orbit in six years and four months.
Quotes:
1. Immediately after T−0, humans lose all control over a rocket.
2. Starhopper, he explained to the boys, is made from stainless steel, the same stuff in pots and pans. This stainless steel, however, had the look of being left on a stovetop’s open flame for too long.
3. After perusing Starhopper at sunset, he spent several hours touring his rocket shipyard in South Texas.
4. Brian Bjelde was oblivious to Mars’s close approach and Musk’s dreams that summer.
5. He still speaks with the same earnestness about Mars. Only a goal that seemed preposterous in 2002 now merely seems audacious.
6. A failed mission is just unplanned rapid disassembly.
7. But most of all, he channelled a preternatural force to move things forward. Elon Musk just wants to get shit done.
8. It was this marathon sprint. It always felt like we were a sprint away, but it just kept going.
9. The white rocket, with a stark black interstage, stood on the launchpad venting oxygen into the tropical breeze.
10. Time was money. This window to reach Mars and make humanity a multiplanetary species, Musk fears, may not remain open forever. And Musk’s own lifetime was finite. This brutal devotion to speed got results.
11. The first Falcon 1 launch attempt came a mere three years and ten months after Musk started SpaceX. The company reached “space” in four years and ten months. It made orbit in six years and four months.
February 8, 2022
Interesting account of the early days at SpaceX, when both the company and its founder, Elon Musk, were close to bankruptcy. Musk recognized the need for an agile,commercial company. While SpaceX wasn’t the first company to make the attempt, it has been the most successful.
A feature of the SpaceX development process is the iterative design approach, where you design, test, iterate the design, then repeat. While this approach can lead to rapid progress, it can also lead to more failures. SpaceX discovered this, as their first three launch attempts had partial or total failures, from 2006 to 2008. However, each flight was more successful than the last, with SpaceX incorporating lessons learned into the design.
Another feature of SpaceX was its tendency to have as much manufacturing as possible in-house, giving it more control over its parts. Also, since Musk was both the CTO and CFO, executive decisions were streamlined.
Although the author highlights the positive things that SoaceX accomplished, he also frankly discusses the grueling pressure and hours that employees endured in pursuit of SpaceX goals. Although employees bought in to Musk’s vision, they acknowledged the effect the work had on their health and their family lives.
With lots of personal testimonies from SpaceX employees, including Musk himself, this book is recommended for fans of technology and SpaceX in particular.
A feature of the SpaceX development process is the iterative design approach, where you design, test, iterate the design, then repeat. While this approach can lead to rapid progress, it can also lead to more failures. SpaceX discovered this, as their first three launch attempts had partial or total failures, from 2006 to 2008. However, each flight was more successful than the last, with SpaceX incorporating lessons learned into the design.
Another feature of SpaceX was its tendency to have as much manufacturing as possible in-house, giving it more control over its parts. Also, since Musk was both the CTO and CFO, executive decisions were streamlined.
Although the author highlights the positive things that SoaceX accomplished, he also frankly discusses the grueling pressure and hours that employees endured in pursuit of SpaceX goals. Although employees bought in to Musk’s vision, they acknowledged the effect the work had on their health and their family lives.
With lots of personal testimonies from SpaceX employees, including Musk himself, this book is recommended for fans of technology and SpaceX in particular.
February 1, 2022
What a wonderful thrilling adventure ride! This was an absolutely outstanding book filled with all the nail-biting, maddeningly tempestuous cliffhangers much akin to a superhero movie.
When I initially purchased this book I was worried it was going to be little more than hero worship for Elon Musk, but this absolutely wasn't the case. Surprisingly, Musk was actually a minor character in this story.
This book is the story of the misfit space junkies who came together to do the impossible. Using a ball of twine, some thumbtacks, and a spool of barbed wire they managed to cobble together an inexpensive rocket and did it in record time. The setbacks were heartbreaking. The company was continually on the edge of bankruptcy. Each test firing was a do or die moment, yet somehow these mavericks pulled it off.
The story has it all: tropical island launchpads filled with giant crabs, implosions inside a plane at 30,000 feet, wild boozy celebrations, and mind-bogglingly huge explosions that quite regularly frightened the people of south Texas.
The author did an outstanding job of plainly explaining the tech of a rocket and turned each engineering challenge into an adventure. This made learning all the rocket science quite painless.
I would highly recommend this book. It is exciting, charming, and a thrilling ride into the next generation of space travel.
When I initially purchased this book I was worried it was going to be little more than hero worship for Elon Musk, but this absolutely wasn't the case. Surprisingly, Musk was actually a minor character in this story.
This book is the story of the misfit space junkies who came together to do the impossible. Using a ball of twine, some thumbtacks, and a spool of barbed wire they managed to cobble together an inexpensive rocket and did it in record time. The setbacks were heartbreaking. The company was continually on the edge of bankruptcy. Each test firing was a do or die moment, yet somehow these mavericks pulled it off.
The story has it all: tropical island launchpads filled with giant crabs, implosions inside a plane at 30,000 feet, wild boozy celebrations, and mind-bogglingly huge explosions that quite regularly frightened the people of south Texas.
The author did an outstanding job of plainly explaining the tech of a rocket and turned each engineering challenge into an adventure. This made learning all the rocket science quite painless.
I would highly recommend this book. It is exciting, charming, and a thrilling ride into the next generation of space travel.
March 30, 2022
What an inspiring story about the most transformative aerospace company in the world. Once considered as an underdog, Space X has now dwarfed the likes of established legacy contractors like United Launch Alliance, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. All of them had a sizeable contract with the US airforce and NASA for national security, scientific, commercial and the other deep space projects. Now the tables have turned and about two-third of the commercial satellites are launched by Space X.
The author has splendidly covered the genesis and the work culture of the company. The founding ethos of the Space X was to make life Multi-Planetary and the first step towards it was to make space launch cheaper. It all started with the Flacon 1 rocket and how they graduated from that to other rockets and now the company is striving to realize that dream.
What you will come across the book are those early days and the struggle of the company to put Falcon 1 into orbit.
Also, as an after thought I'm just musing that how Space X is truly a trailblazer of the aerospace industry, as nowadays it has made reusable rockets the new-normal.
The author has splendidly covered the genesis and the work culture of the company. The founding ethos of the Space X was to make life Multi-Planetary and the first step towards it was to make space launch cheaper. It all started with the Flacon 1 rocket and how they graduated from that to other rockets and now the company is striving to realize that dream.
What you will come across the book are those early days and the struggle of the company to put Falcon 1 into orbit.
Also, as an after thought I'm just musing that how Space X is truly a trailblazer of the aerospace industry, as nowadays it has made reusable rockets the new-normal.
August 24, 2021
Five years ago, charmed by the bio of that dude;
Here is more to know, dazzled by the team glued.
Elon hired the best talents and a crazy brood,
finally desired for everyone to be interviewed.
From the fledgling to soaring Falcon 1;
I shun no tech jargon, rock & roll having fun.
At McGregor, Vandenberg, and OM Kawaj Omelek, Merlin spun
chase sun, launch run, flight 4 won!
The pioneer inspired more peers,
all race into space, who will ace a place?
Build on Earth, what shared in dearth;
LOX fuels burn, humans yet learn;
Self unknown, still much to own.
Cars here stars there, Mars won't be ours.
Here is more to know, dazzled by the team glued.
Elon hired the best talents and a crazy brood,
finally desired for everyone to be interviewed.
From the fledgling to soaring Falcon 1;
I shun no tech jargon, rock & roll having fun.
At McGregor, Vandenberg, and OM Kawaj Omelek, Merlin spun
chase sun, launch run, flight 4 won!
The pioneer inspired more peers,
all race into space, who will ace a place?
Build on Earth, what shared in dearth;
LOX fuels burn, humans yet learn;
Self unknown, still much to own.
Cars here stars there, Mars won't be ours.
June 3, 2021
Ok, so this was actually really fun to read. I didn’t really pay attention to SpaceX until this past year with the launch of the Dragon with a crew to the ISS. Great writing, and a great peek into the early years at SpaceX and the people that worked there.
April 26, 2021
The incredible achievements aside, the fanboying about 16 hour work days up until the epilogue goes a bit too far for me
December 17, 2024
Liftoff : Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days that Launched SpaceX (2021) by Eric Berger is an excellent history of the first years of SpaceX. Berger is the space writer for Ars Technica and a longtime journalist. He studied Astronomy and has very good technical understanding. He also had fantastic access to the people who worked at SpaceX. On top of this he writes very well.
Liftoff is a book like ‘Soul of a New Machine’. It conveys the mental demands required to build remarkable things. It also highlights the huge amounts of work needed. But instead of being about a better computer it covers one of the most remarkable companies of the twenty first century. There was a joke around 2010 that said that ‘the best minds of our generation are working out how to sell ads better’. This book shows that this was not the case. The best minds of the generation were, among other things, working at SpaceX to reduce the cost of putting mass into orbit by a factor of 10.
After Elon Musk had made over 100 million dollars being involved with Paypal he then turned to building rockets. He also started Tesla around the same time to make electric cars viable. Building rockets is a very hard task with many more failures than successes. Bean Aerospace and Microcosm were just two recent failures that are mentioned in the book.
The book covers the early years of SpaceX when they were trying to build their first rocket, Falcon. Musk managed to hire great engineers like Hans Koenigsmann, Tom Mueller, Chris Thompson, Tim Buzza, Gwynne Shotwell, Bulent Altan, Brian Bjeld, Florence Li, Zach Dunn and others. He also managed to inspire them to work very hard. This was also possible because they were able to work as engineers rather than as bureaucrats. In many engineering firms writing documents has overtaken engineering as the main part of work. At SpaceX this team built a whole new rocket system. Each of the engineers is introduced by Berger writing about them and where they came from. It gives a human touch to the book.
SpaceX was not a normal company. The people worked so hard and so long that there were divorces as a result. Many people worked their for some years but had to leave to work in a more normal job. But for bursts of a few years it shows what can be done.
SpaceX had to be very frugal. Musk pushed this. They also had to scrounge what they could for launch facilities. They wound up using the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for launches. They launched from the small island of Omelek that the US Army had. It was a very remote spot and transporting the rockets to the islands was very hard. They managed to use a testing facility in Texas. This facility was for rockets built by Bean Aerospace, a failed predecessor of SpaceX.
The book goes through the SpaceX launches until they achieved success. The launch where they did succeed was really make or break for SpaceX and for Musk himself. Had things not been done quite as well Musk may well have gone insolvent.
Liftoff really conveys the tension well. It’s such a good story. Perhaps one day there will be a TV series based on the book. There has been a documentary called ‘Returning to Space’ that is well worth watching.
Liftoff really is an excellent book and would be great for any engineer to read. It shows what people are capable of. Berger has done a great job of documenting the remarkable achievements of SpaceX.
Liftoff is a book like ‘Soul of a New Machine’. It conveys the mental demands required to build remarkable things. It also highlights the huge amounts of work needed. But instead of being about a better computer it covers one of the most remarkable companies of the twenty first century. There was a joke around 2010 that said that ‘the best minds of our generation are working out how to sell ads better’. This book shows that this was not the case. The best minds of the generation were, among other things, working at SpaceX to reduce the cost of putting mass into orbit by a factor of 10.
After Elon Musk had made over 100 million dollars being involved with Paypal he then turned to building rockets. He also started Tesla around the same time to make electric cars viable. Building rockets is a very hard task with many more failures than successes. Bean Aerospace and Microcosm were just two recent failures that are mentioned in the book.
The book covers the early years of SpaceX when they were trying to build their first rocket, Falcon. Musk managed to hire great engineers like Hans Koenigsmann, Tom Mueller, Chris Thompson, Tim Buzza, Gwynne Shotwell, Bulent Altan, Brian Bjeld, Florence Li, Zach Dunn and others. He also managed to inspire them to work very hard. This was also possible because they were able to work as engineers rather than as bureaucrats. In many engineering firms writing documents has overtaken engineering as the main part of work. At SpaceX this team built a whole new rocket system. Each of the engineers is introduced by Berger writing about them and where they came from. It gives a human touch to the book.
SpaceX was not a normal company. The people worked so hard and so long that there were divorces as a result. Many people worked their for some years but had to leave to work in a more normal job. But for bursts of a few years it shows what can be done.
SpaceX had to be very frugal. Musk pushed this. They also had to scrounge what they could for launch facilities. They wound up using the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands for launches. They launched from the small island of Omelek that the US Army had. It was a very remote spot and transporting the rockets to the islands was very hard. They managed to use a testing facility in Texas. This facility was for rockets built by Bean Aerospace, a failed predecessor of SpaceX.
The book goes through the SpaceX launches until they achieved success. The launch where they did succeed was really make or break for SpaceX and for Musk himself. Had things not been done quite as well Musk may well have gone insolvent.
Liftoff really conveys the tension well. It’s such a good story. Perhaps one day there will be a TV series based on the book. There has been a documentary called ‘Returning to Space’ that is well worth watching.
Liftoff really is an excellent book and would be great for any engineer to read. It shows what people are capable of. Berger has done a great job of documenting the remarkable achievements of SpaceX.
October 28, 2024
Reading this book felt like watching a blockbuster movie. I love the details the author included regarding how rockets work and the launches failed.
April 2, 2021
As a friend and colleague of Eric’s, I hoped I could write an objective review of this book. Thankfully, I can. This is a fantastic read, and it’s honestly a book I struggled to put down at times. I knew nothing about SpaceX beyond they launch rockets, Elon Musk, and they do some cool stuff. This was highly informative and illuminating, and it gave my great respect for their accomplishments. Eric’s writing style is breezy and engaging but thorough. If you want you could finish this in a day or two easily. He balances a good explanation of some of the technicalities of rocket science with the events they encountered along the way. It’s just really well done.
July 6, 2021
If you're a fan of SpaceX, you need to read this book. There are so many stories that you won't find anywhere else. To truly appreciate where SpaceX is today, it's important to know all the hardships they went through. The book goes through multiple different key characters that contributed to the success of SpaceX. I really enjoyed the different perspectives and learning about the other people behind the scenes besides Elon.
April 17, 2021
I really enjoyed this book! Some of the details are facts I’ve heard before and some are more in depth stories I don’t think anyone other than those present know. Elon looked on NASA’s site to see their plans for space travel to Mars and was surprised to see they didn’t have a plan. He also decided to build his own rockets when he realized the Russians would always charge more and continue increasing prices. There’s a story of a guy who was working at NASA when his friend from college invited him to take a tour of SpaceX. It was a simple office that had a free vending machine stocked with Coke and other caffeinated beverages. He met with several people before meeting with Elon himself. Elon asked him if he died his hair. Elon is notorious for throwing curveballs to people to see how they react under unusual questions. The guy retorted “Is this an ice breaker?” Elon said no, he just noticed his eyebrows were a different color than his hair. He explained it was a natural difference.
They had a good conversation and he left the SpaceX facility. Later at around 1:04am he received an email from Elon’s assistant with a job offer. It was less than his NASA salary of 60k and didn’t have the tuition reimbursement, college experience or the party opportunities his current role had. He tried to negotiate more, but wasn’t able to. Still he saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and took the job as employee number 14 of SpaceX. Elon personally hired the first core team and they did everything such as janitorial work and ice cream runs with the one corporate credit card. They played Quake games until early in the morning with Elon right there playing with them. One time they went to a manufacturing facility to evaluate them for a partnership. There were pop tarts there and a toaster. it was early in the morning and Elon made the rookie mistake of putting the pop tarts in horizontally instead of vertical. Once finished he had to reach into the toaster to get it out. Of course he burned his hands and you heard him yell “fuck! that’s hot!” at the top of his lungs. Elon made decisions on the spot and the SpaceX team became known as the get shit done group. If people figured out how to make something in-house instead of buying it from supplier, there were incentives to encourage that kind of innovation. He also saved two years of salary for key engineers, so even if company went belly up, they’d have salaries to help transition. This helped them justify the risky move to join SpaceX. The book also told the story of Mueller, an engineer from Idaho who went to a school that had a lumberjack as the mascot. He had a teacher take a special interest in him after he realized his mathematical abilities. While most of his friends were slacking during their senior year, he was taking calculus. He told his teacher he wanted to become an airplane mechanic. His teacher responded, why not be the one who creates the plane instead of fixing them. This intrigued him. He ended up going to college to become a mechanical engineer. He worked as a logger to help put him though school. One day he almost had a dead tree - a white tree fall on him and kill him. It just missed and lightly grazed his ankle. His family thought he would come back to Idaho like his uncle did. After moving to California, he was wondering the same thing as there didn’t seem to be too much opportunities and he wasn’t having success with job prospects from sending his resume. He got involved in this career fair and his enthusiasm and knowledge in person shined and he was offered 3 jobs. After reviewing based on pros and cons, he decided on one where the company put satellites in space. He worked there 15 years and worked on some in depth engineering with rockets. He went to a club of fellow rocket enthusiasts where they would drive a couple hours away to launch rockets. He and his friend developed probably the powerful non industrial rocket. He also worked on a rocket for his company that didn’t win a competition it was in, but was still a good design. He and his friend ended up meeting with Elon who was looking for rocket engineers. He showed up with his wife at the time, Justine, and they were dressed to go to a party even though she was pregnant. After talking for a while, Elon and Justine had to go, but Elon wanted to continue the conversation with Mueller next weekend. Mueller had just got a 55” Mitsubishi flat screen tv and was planning to set it up for the Super Bowl during that weekend. His wife and him had friends coming over and were hosting a party. Elon ended up coming to his party and they ended up not watching the game that much. Shortly after, Mueller ended up joining SpaceX. Mueller was responsible for many engineering marvels at SpaceX. He got real good at turbo pumps, good turbo pumps would become the key to success and dominance, which Mueller was involved in. Elon talking about Jeff Bezos said he’s not a great engineer. Elon said he knew how to identify and separate the great engineers from the good ones. He saw something in Mueller and realized he was a great engineer, the root word of engineer is engine. When the SpaceX team was celebrating their lunch they drank a bottle of some rare wine. They drive home and Mueller was driving the white Humvee. When they were about a mile from their apartment, a TX state trooper pulled them over. He explained they just tested a rocket and were 1 mile from their apartment and just wanted to get home after a long day’s work. The trooper said they better not be lying and let them go on their way. They had a supplier named Mustang Engineering who fabricated parts for them. When Elon’s assistant paid them, it was immediate. Once she got an invoice, she would pay it right away the next day. Mustang leadership explained that most customers paid within 30 days which was fine and normal. She emphasized that she paid quickly and wanted their orders quickly. Mustang got the idea and it often prioritized getting SpaceX the parts they needed as they were a good reliable company on paying their bills ASAP. Mustang was in Gregory Texas and it eventually had to close down. Musk was already looking for a launch site where he could set up. He heard about the close down and site and ended up going to take a tour of the facility. One of the long term employees Reagan was called to see if he could give them a tour of the old facility. Reagan was the last employee who was at the site and worked with them for decades. He also lived close by. After Mustang closed he started taking programming class at a Texas State college and was taking an exam but said he could meet them there. After the tour and Musk seeing it would work well for them he decided to lease the space. He also wanted to meet more with Reagan about a job. Reagan ended up accepting a job as VP of Mechanical Engineering. He was an interesting character with long hair and an earring, but he used to work with Boeing and Lockheed and knew how to clean up. Not that Elon was too concerned with that as long as he was good at his job. Having Reagan in-house was much better for speed, bulk purchasing and custom fabrication. While Mustang was a key supplier and did good work, doing things in-house afforded much more savings and efficiency. Reagan was in the cube farm with engineers and he was very knowledgeable and talented. Elon estimated they cut their production costs in half by bringing it in-house. One day shortly after hiring Reagan Elon took him out to lunch in his McClaren and offered him a $10,000 raise. He knew he was good, but didn’t realize he was this good. It was a no-brained to pay him more with all the saving and efficiency gains. The book was full of good stories like this about the history of SpaceX and its early engineers as well as lessons learned. I always enjoy books like this about Elon Musk and SpaceX. Definitely recommend!
They had a good conversation and he left the SpaceX facility. Later at around 1:04am he received an email from Elon’s assistant with a job offer. It was less than his NASA salary of 60k and didn’t have the tuition reimbursement, college experience or the party opportunities his current role had. He tried to negotiate more, but wasn’t able to. Still he saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and took the job as employee number 14 of SpaceX. Elon personally hired the first core team and they did everything such as janitorial work and ice cream runs with the one corporate credit card. They played Quake games until early in the morning with Elon right there playing with them. One time they went to a manufacturing facility to evaluate them for a partnership. There were pop tarts there and a toaster. it was early in the morning and Elon made the rookie mistake of putting the pop tarts in horizontally instead of vertical. Once finished he had to reach into the toaster to get it out. Of course he burned his hands and you heard him yell “fuck! that’s hot!” at the top of his lungs. Elon made decisions on the spot and the SpaceX team became known as the get shit done group. If people figured out how to make something in-house instead of buying it from supplier, there were incentives to encourage that kind of innovation. He also saved two years of salary for key engineers, so even if company went belly up, they’d have salaries to help transition. This helped them justify the risky move to join SpaceX. The book also told the story of Mueller, an engineer from Idaho who went to a school that had a lumberjack as the mascot. He had a teacher take a special interest in him after he realized his mathematical abilities. While most of his friends were slacking during their senior year, he was taking calculus. He told his teacher he wanted to become an airplane mechanic. His teacher responded, why not be the one who creates the plane instead of fixing them. This intrigued him. He ended up going to college to become a mechanical engineer. He worked as a logger to help put him though school. One day he almost had a dead tree - a white tree fall on him and kill him. It just missed and lightly grazed his ankle. His family thought he would come back to Idaho like his uncle did. After moving to California, he was wondering the same thing as there didn’t seem to be too much opportunities and he wasn’t having success with job prospects from sending his resume. He got involved in this career fair and his enthusiasm and knowledge in person shined and he was offered 3 jobs. After reviewing based on pros and cons, he decided on one where the company put satellites in space. He worked there 15 years and worked on some in depth engineering with rockets. He went to a club of fellow rocket enthusiasts where they would drive a couple hours away to launch rockets. He and his friend developed probably the powerful non industrial rocket. He also worked on a rocket for his company that didn’t win a competition it was in, but was still a good design. He and his friend ended up meeting with Elon who was looking for rocket engineers. He showed up with his wife at the time, Justine, and they were dressed to go to a party even though she was pregnant. After talking for a while, Elon and Justine had to go, but Elon wanted to continue the conversation with Mueller next weekend. Mueller had just got a 55” Mitsubishi flat screen tv and was planning to set it up for the Super Bowl during that weekend. His wife and him had friends coming over and were hosting a party. Elon ended up coming to his party and they ended up not watching the game that much. Shortly after, Mueller ended up joining SpaceX. Mueller was responsible for many engineering marvels at SpaceX. He got real good at turbo pumps, good turbo pumps would become the key to success and dominance, which Mueller was involved in. Elon talking about Jeff Bezos said he’s not a great engineer. Elon said he knew how to identify and separate the great engineers from the good ones. He saw something in Mueller and realized he was a great engineer, the root word of engineer is engine. When the SpaceX team was celebrating their lunch they drank a bottle of some rare wine. They drive home and Mueller was driving the white Humvee. When they were about a mile from their apartment, a TX state trooper pulled them over. He explained they just tested a rocket and were 1 mile from their apartment and just wanted to get home after a long day’s work. The trooper said they better not be lying and let them go on their way. They had a supplier named Mustang Engineering who fabricated parts for them. When Elon’s assistant paid them, it was immediate. Once she got an invoice, she would pay it right away the next day. Mustang leadership explained that most customers paid within 30 days which was fine and normal. She emphasized that she paid quickly and wanted their orders quickly. Mustang got the idea and it often prioritized getting SpaceX the parts they needed as they were a good reliable company on paying their bills ASAP. Mustang was in Gregory Texas and it eventually had to close down. Musk was already looking for a launch site where he could set up. He heard about the close down and site and ended up going to take a tour of the facility. One of the long term employees Reagan was called to see if he could give them a tour of the old facility. Reagan was the last employee who was at the site and worked with them for decades. He also lived close by. After Mustang closed he started taking programming class at a Texas State college and was taking an exam but said he could meet them there. After the tour and Musk seeing it would work well for them he decided to lease the space. He also wanted to meet more with Reagan about a job. Reagan ended up accepting a job as VP of Mechanical Engineering. He was an interesting character with long hair and an earring, but he used to work with Boeing and Lockheed and knew how to clean up. Not that Elon was too concerned with that as long as he was good at his job. Having Reagan in-house was much better for speed, bulk purchasing and custom fabrication. While Mustang was a key supplier and did good work, doing things in-house afforded much more savings and efficiency. Reagan was in the cube farm with engineers and he was very knowledgeable and talented. Elon estimated they cut their production costs in half by bringing it in-house. One day shortly after hiring Reagan Elon took him out to lunch in his McClaren and offered him a $10,000 raise. He knew he was good, but didn’t realize he was this good. It was a no-brained to pay him more with all the saving and efficiency gains. The book was full of good stories like this about the history of SpaceX and its early engineers as well as lessons learned. I always enjoy books like this about Elon Musk and SpaceX. Definitely recommend!
December 7, 2022
Just excellent! Highly recommended and a great narration makes it a perfect audiobook as well. Note that as other reviewers pointed out, it is not a story about Elon Musk. He of course features but it is not about him. It is about a band of daredevil engineers from the early days of SpaceX that made Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launches possible. The focus is firmly on the very first flights of the company and the modern successes (like: https://inspiration4.com/) are referred to only briefly.
The author does a great job keeping the tale very engaging and full of relatable details.
It reminded me of The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley I encountered earlier this year. Also strongly recommended.
If you are for more Elon Musk details, for now the best resource is:
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
But we are looking forward to the news from Walter Isaacson on this ;)
The author does a great job keeping the tale very engaging and full of relatable details.
It reminded me of The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley I encountered earlier this year. Also strongly recommended.
If you are for more Elon Musk details, for now the best resource is:
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
But we are looking forward to the news from Walter Isaacson on this ;)
March 17, 2022
Was this book a page turner like some reviewers have stated? Hardly. It is clear those folks must be true space enthusiasts.
While I found the book technically dense at times, it did offer good, detailed insight into the history and culture of SpaceX. I would only recommend this book to someone with a genuine interest in space. Otherwise, a skim of SpaceX’s Wikipedia page would suffice.
While I found the book technically dense at times, it did offer good, detailed insight into the history and culture of SpaceX. I would only recommend this book to someone with a genuine interest in space. Otherwise, a skim of SpaceX’s Wikipedia page would suffice.
March 13, 2021
Prior to this book, I have not read any news article at length about Elon Musk or SpaceX. So the entire events specified in this book are pretty new to me. Considering my last entrepreneur focused book was Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork, I was surprised by Elon Musk's work ethics and his attention to minutiae details.
Overall, it was a good read for me, but at times, I felt that author was gushing about Elon Musk like a fanboy.
Overall, it was a good read for me, but at times, I felt that author was gushing about Elon Musk like a fanboy.
September 27, 2021
3.5*
An incredible story I already kind of knew, thanks to all the awesome videos of falcons landing on drone ships with funky names, but very nice to read about it with a lot of anecdotes from the people who where there and made it happen.
An incredible story I already kind of knew, thanks to all the awesome videos of falcons landing on drone ships with funky names, but very nice to read about it with a lot of anecdotes from the people who where there and made it happen.
April 21, 2025
Quick read, Fascinating behind-the-scenes access
October 21, 2023
Absolutely loved this book but I guess that's not surprising! Very engaging and a fast read!
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