Reentry: Spacex, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets That Launched a Second Space Age

National Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Technology

Featured in The Economist’s Best Books of 2024

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How did a shaky startup defy expectations and become the world’s leading spaceflight company? Get the untold story of the team of game-changers, led by a well-known billionaire, who are sending NASA astronauts to space—and just might carry the human race to Mars.

One company dominates the modern space industry: SpaceX, founded by controversial entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002, now sending more payloads into orbit than the rest of the world combined. But Musk didn’t do it alone—the saga of SpaceX is the story of a diverse cadre of true believers in the limitless potential of space travel.

For the first time, Reentry relates the definitive chronicle of how this daring team was able to redefine what it takes to reach the stars.

With Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Eric Berger, author of Liftoff, as your guide, you’ll accompany SpaceX’s innovative thinkers during their toughest trials and most audacious moments, including:

• Creating the first orbital rockets that land by themselves and fly again
• Transporting a 120-foot rocket from Texas to Florida
• Recovering from a “Hell’s Bells” accident before the first Falcon Heavy launch
• Frantically searching the ocean for the first rocket that splashed down intact
• Identifying the $20 part that led to a rocket exploding in flight
• Slicing up an engine days before it launched into space

From launchpad explosions to a pernicious cricket infestation to the demanding management style of Musk himself, the rise of SpaceX was beset with challenges and far from inevitable. Find out how the startup beat the odds and flew high enough to outpace their rivals . . . and where they’re going next.

Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of the book Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX. 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.