Veteran journalist and Ars Technica's senior space editor Eric Berger describes SpaceX's desperate beginnings as an aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company in a new book.
Although concentrating extensively on SpaceX's early years, the book "Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX" describes the origins of the company's daring steps into even newer frontiers: human missions and Mars exploration.
Berger talked with some of SpaceX's early employees, as well as founder and chief engineer Elon Musk, providing the first glimpse into how SpaceX almost never was and how the gritty, committed and often reckless engineers gave their all to launch SpaceX's first orbital rocket Falcon 1.
Zach Dunn was one of the early employees who gave all they had. With money and time running out, SpaceX attempted a last-ditch Falcon 1 launch in September 2008. The company only had one booster remaining and wanted to get it to Kwajalein as soon as possible.
SpaceX chartered a military plane to move it from its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to the remote launch facility on Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.
"As they were descending into Honolulu, the first leg of this journey, they hadn't got the pressures quite right," said Berger. "The first stage started imploding. And very quickly, they needed to release the pressure on the interior of this rocket or it would have imploded and crumbled."
Climbing inside the rocket was the only way to do this. Dunn forced his way through the dim interior of the rocket's interstage, avoiding wires and sharp metal, to release the valve while soaring 25,000 feet over the Pacific.
The rocket would eventually enter orbit, launching SpaceX's own payload. The traction created by that success pushed the company forward. NASA awarded SpaceX a deal to ship materials to the space station, jump-starting the construction of the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.
Another story that narrated SpaceX's struggles and challenges was about the time it nearly went bankrupt, particularly given that Musk manages both Tesla and the private space company. At the time, the world was in the grip of another recession, and the company's funding was depleted by failing experiments, not until they launched the imploding rocket into space.
"Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX'' by Eric Berger is available on Amazon.com for $24. The Kindle version retails $15 and an audiobook narrated by Rob Shapiro costs $22. You can also read excerpts of "Liftoff" on Ars Technica.
