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 BoysThe 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.