Great and riveting book on the beginning of SpaceX. Lots of insight into how lucky and daring the rocket company and Elon Musk were when starting. Lots of pivotal and chancy moments that have since started changing the world. Loved it! Will definitely recommend to my science and tech loving customers!

Liftoff tells the story of the early years of SpaceX and provides in rich detail the characters and stories that tell of the beginnings of many magnificent achievements in space exploration in the past 20 years. It is almost impossible to believe now that such an integral company was only moments away from seeing its demise, or that its founder ever struggled financially as he did not much more than a decade ago. Like most great companies, SpaceX is a story of its people, Elon Musk, its founder, had the managerial and engineering mind to navigate risks of all types. His handpicked, talented employees had the resourcefulness of the Wild West frontiersmen. These characters make for a fascinating story. Getting to read this book only makes me more excited about our future in space, and as the grandson of a longtime NASA engineer based in Houston, the belief that the future of space exploration is truly in good hands. Berger's writing is commendable and engrossing, and it is very easy to become immersed in the story. I look forward to sharing this book with many others and discussing it with them as we all look to a future - in large part due to SpaceX - of exploring the final frontier.

Wonderful book. All the blurbs of the book are spot on. You can make many notes to look into more technical details later on, if you want to learn more about the rocketry. If you just want the story, there's loads of it. loved the going into the backgrounds of the employees of how they become awed with space and engineering. Book of and for future.

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.)

Elon Musk, a real-life Tony Stark is certainly one of the biggest inventors of current times. A lot of books have been written about him or the companies he was leading. "Liftoff" by Eric Berger tells the story of SpaceX at the earliest beginning, the times with the biggest setbacks, the story where Elon Musk put everything he had on the line to pursue a goal most people thought is crazy.

Eric Berger tells the story blunt, straight from the gut. It is a very entertaining story a fun ride and borderline a book on how to build a rocket-company - or not Certainly a five-star rating for a story that may would have not been told if Eric Berger would have not done it.

If you are a space buff and only have time for one book this year - you have found the one! I like reading historical space books and finished up a pair of Apollo hardware / KSC ops books that had me looking for SpaceX info.

Not much exists other than NSF posts and periodic news articles.

Well my prayers were answered! This is THE document that explains how SpaceX went from Elon’s head - to orbit. There are stories and insights that explain how the company moved from failure to failure to failure to success.

It answered just about every question I’d ever had about the history of SpaceX!

This was an absolutely incredible book that I could not put down. The author takes you through the roller coaster ride of a company that was weeks close to collapsing & instead became an innovative leader who beat all the odds. I knew very little about SpaceX before reading this & was fascinated by the accomplishments, drive, & breakthroughs from a small company led by Elon Musk. If you're at all interested in space, science, exploration, innovation, or people like Elon Musk, I would recommend this book. This instantly became one of my favorite books!