About the Author

Eric Berger is a reporter and editor based in Houston. After a long career in the Houston Chronicle, he joined Ars Technica in 2015 as the site's senior space editor, covering SpaceX, NASA, and everything beyond. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of Hurricane Ike in the Houston Chronicle in 2008.

Reviews

"A colorful page-turner that focuses on the downs and ups of the early years of SpaceX." -- New York Times Book Review "Liftoff reads like something out of the golden age of Science Fiction but this isn't a novel by Robert Heinlein or Arthur C. Clarke. This is the true, astounding story of the men and women who spun those sci-fi dreams into reality." -- Homer Hickam, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Rocket Boys"The elegant brilliance of the engineering that allows today's space rockets to land themselves back on earth--or at sea--right way up, and on target to the inch, is all the doing of the teams assembled by Elon Musk--and the story of how he did it, and how for sure he will get us to Mars whether we like it or not, is told in appropriately stellar fashion by Eric Berger in a book that held me captive, in earth orbit, from prologue to epilogue, countdown to splashdown." -- Simon Winchester, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Perfectionists"A colorful page-turner." -- WALTER ISAACSON, New York Times Book Review"Page-turning. ... Eric Berger writes with the kind of hard-won insider authority that only comes through covering the nuts and bolts of the commercial space industry for the past twenty years." -- Forbes"Eric Berger has followed the exploits of SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk, from its very early days. In Liftoff, Eric relates the many personal accounts collected in one-on-one interviews with Musk and many of his key leaders and associates. He chronicles the frenetic pace of Falcon 1 development and the toll it took on many of the early employees. This is a book that will hold your rapt attention from start to finish." -- Charles Bolden, Former NASA Administrator and Four-Time Astronaut"[Berger] depicts race-against-the-clock crises as fast-paced as a thriller, with moments reminiscent of Apollo 13 or The Martian. ... An exciting and insightful read." -- Booklist"Eric Berger brings to life the passion and sacrifice of the early SpaceX team as they navigated through countless obstacles toward unlikely success. The skillfully described technical details, paired with a candid glimpse into individual personalities, makes Liftoff a must read for space enthusiasts and novices alike." -- KAREN NYBERG, NASA Astronaut"This might be the best space book I've ever read. Liftoff will prove to be a defining story not only for the commercial space industry, but for the Space Age writ large, and there's no one better than Eric Berger to tell it." -- KELLIE GERARDI, author of Not Necessarily Rocket Science"Compelling. ... Great reading. ... An essential, unofficial reference test for what to do (and not do) as space flight goes commercial. ... Fascinating." -- New Scientist"Does a fine job of telling the white-knuckle story of how SpaceX was created in 2002 and came close to collapse several times." -- Financial Times"Thrilling. ... There is a self-assured momentum about the narrative, even as it describes infuriating setbacks and strokes of incredible luck." -- Reason