Veteran space journalist Eric Berger’s first foray into the story of how Elon Musk and SpaceX became a success has become required reading for employees of at least one competing rocket company.
He now follows up 2021’s “Liftoff” with this year’s “Reentry” from Penguin Random House available Sept. 24 (Hardcover, $31.95).
Symbolic of the theme, the cover features a photo shot by Satellite Beach’s John Kraus of the Falcon 9 booster coming in for one of its fiery, yet controlled, landings at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1.
Now the senior space editor for Ars Technica, Berger has been covering the industry for two decades, including 17 years with the Houston Chronicle. In “Reentry,” similar to “Liftoff,” he again uncovers SpaceX’s highs and lows with touches of humor and strain that are part of the machine that Musk’s company has become.
Executives at startup Stoke Space, which aims to develop its own reusable rocket launching from Cape Canaveral, recently said “Liftoff” is required reading for all of their more than 100 employees. That story goes through SpaceX’s early days to reach success with its Falcon 1 rocket.
“Reentry” may soon need to be added to their library.
“I was really fortunate when I wrote ‘Liftoff’ to have access to all of the early employees and they grew comfortable with me,” Berger said in an interview with the Sentinel. “So they were willing to sort of share all of these great details, and as I went into ‘Reentry,’ I went back to them and then also got recommendations for other people to talk to who were kind of carrying the story forward.”
The story jumps forward and backward in time, but holding to the reentry theme that applies to the return of the Dragon capsules that splash down in the ocean like the old Apollo spacecraft, but also the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy booster efforts.
Berger spins the stories with exceptional detail culled from interviews with mostly former employees as he’s not embedded with the company as much as he had previously been in terms of access like on “Liftoff.”
But the picture still develops clearly and gives a satisfying glance under the hood of how SpaceX works.
That story runs through the hurdles of getting to the first launch of Falcon 9 in 2010, the development of the cargo Dragon capsule, the first successful booster landing, the first Falcon Heavy launch all the way through the first human spaceflight in 2020.
“The first generation of SpaceX users basically, you know, killed themselves to make the Falcon 1 a success,” Berger said. “And then you had second and third generations and employees coming in.
“And that’s really who carries the action forward and in the new book, but it was them sort of being comfortable with me and understanding what I was trying to do after ‘Liftoff.’”
The sequel digs deep into the story of SpaceX’s employees under the demanding, if not sometimes maniacal, force of Musk as they continued to push through at times explosive setbacks to become the success that it is today.
“It’s really a story about the employees and what they did. When you write a book about SpaceX, you cannot escape Elon,” Berger said. “The fact of the matter is, he is the driving force behind the company, behind the vision, and his energy is essential to making them remaining disruptive.”
In “Reentry” he’s able to give the perspective of the people who make Musk happy, and at times, unhappy.
His chapters touch on Musk’s “leadership style, and how that wears down employees, what it’s like to work closely with him with some pretty telling anecdotes from people.”
“There are thousands of people who have carried out that vision, and who have worked incredibly hard, have done amazing things. And these books, I’ve really tried to tell their stories, to just show, you know how hard it is.”
He concludes the piece with a chapter that gives his two cents, much like his current approach when weighing in on social media about current space affairs.
That includes mixed feelings about Musk.
“That’s a challenge. I will be completely honest,” he said. “I started writing this book before Elon bought Twitter and struggled with some of the things he was saying and his behaviors on the site after that.”
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