Category: Nonfiction
Reviewed by: Casey Suire
Title: Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age
Author: Eric Berger
Format: Hardcover/Kindle
Pages: 400
Publisher: BenBella Books
Date: September 2024
Retail price: $31.95/$15.99
ISBN: 978-1637745274
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Another title for this book could have been Reentry: SpaceX vs. the World. Not that there is anything wrong with the actual subtitle, but SpaceX vs. the World captures the essence of this book perfectly. How did a scrappy rocket company conquer space in a manner the world has never witnessed before?
Veteran space journalist Eric Berger tells the remarkable story of how SpaceX became the most exciting space company on Earth. Berger’s previous book, Liftoff, starts with Elon Musk’s founding of SpaceX in 2002 and ends with the first successful launch of the company’s diminutive Falcon 1 rocket in September 2008. Reentry begins just a few months later. It’s November 2008, and SpaceX is conducting a full-duration test firing of the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage. Despite several notices by SpaceX in local media, the thunderous Falcon 9 test startled the residents of nearby McGregor, Texas. This sets the tone for the book, as it wouldn’t be the last time that SpaceX would be a disrupting force.
Berger, who is also the senior space editor at Ars Technica, is among the most active space writers working today. He wrote Reentry not as a Musk book but as a book about the company itself. This makes for a book filled with many colorful stories from SpaceX lore. Examples include Capricorn One, The Great LOX Boil-Off of 2013, and Hells Bells. Even if you’re an “Occupy Mars” T-shirt wearing SpaceX fan, you will learn a lot from this book.
Berger, most likely, is one of these fans. He is very passionate about SpaceX and is often critical of the company’s rivals. If you work for a SpaceX competitor, chances are you won’t enjoy Reentry. For example, he concludes that Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s “plump and pugnacious” former space chief, “seems like he sucks.” Berger also describes the space business before SpaceX as “stodgy and stale.” Other times, he is a bit softer on SpaceX’s competitors. Berger is not confident in Blue Origin, but at the same time, he wants the company to succeed. He notes that “whatever you may think about Bezos, his passion for space and belief in off-world settlement is genuine.”
Throughout Reentry, a pattern develops with each new SpaceX project. Musk would announce an incredibly ambitious program that has never been done before. He wanted to redesign early versions of Falcon 9 into a reusable rocket by including such innovations as landing legs, grid fins, and propellant densification. He wanted to build a satellite internet constellation known as Starlink. Ultimately, he wants to build the largest rocket in history, Starship, in order to realize SpaceX’s long-term vision of building a city on Mars.
With each Musk announcement, SpaceX would face criticism and pushback from many different entities. Legacy aerospace companies didn’t think Musk’s claims about rocket reusability were possible, and they didn’t change how they built their own launch vehicles. They didn’t think SpaceX would beat them in launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station following the retirement of the space shuttle. Members of Congress who led states where SpaceX rivals did business were equally dismissive. Many astronauts from NASA’s glory years weren’t pleased with the new way of doing space in the 21st century. The mainstream media were quick to ridicule any explosion in a SpaceX rocket test as a sign of incompetence. To be fair to these critics, no private rocket company before SpaceX ever delivered what it promised.
Nevertheless, this pattern went on for many years. SpaceX would launch rockets and achieve impressive milestones at an increasingly faster rate, while rivals continued to ignore Musk’s claims and took little action. Eventually, Berger writes that “these competitors fail to recognize reality until it is too late, before finally scrambling to emulate Musk.” The David vs. Goliath story that characterized Liftoff turns into a David becomes Goliath tale in Reentry. Berger, very accurately, refers to today’s SpaceX as a steamroller.
The current launch industry is a ridiculously lopsided affair in favor of SpaceX. For instance, during “one stretch, from the end of 2022 into the first half of 2023, SpaceX launched more than fifty rockets between United Launch Alliance flights.” Russia’s once proud space program also didn’t account for SpaceX’s meteoric rise, claiming in 2016 that “the economic feasibility of reusable launch systems is not obvious.” Then, there’s the Europeans, who, as Berger points out, designed a conventional expendable booster with the Ariane 6 instead of a reusable system like Falcon 9.
Keeping the SpaceX steamroller operating requires lots of really dedicated individuals. Dedicated, as in working extremely long hours. After all, going to Mars won’t be easy. This arrangement has worked wonders for the company, as “SpaceX builds some of the very best products in the space industry, faster and at far lower prices than its competitors.” At the same time, working very long hours to achieve such impressive results has taken a toll on many employees. Several people interviewed in the book are no longer with the company.
Despite working much faster than the rest of the space industry, SpaceX still often misses its very aggressive deadlines. In the book, this is known as the “green lights to Malibu” philosophy. Theoretically, someone could drive from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA to Malibu in just thirty minutes. All one has to do is drive well over the speed limit and catch all the green lights. In other words, SpaceX timelines assume zero red lights or traffic. In any case, the SpaceX steamroller is barreling towards Mars with its foot firmly on the accelerator. Following a 2016 Musk speech on SpaceX’s Mars plan, Berger described the speech as either mad, brilliant, or both. Today, Berger leans more on the side of brilliance.
Given all the publicity surrounding SpaceX today, Reentry is almost guaranteed to become a bestseller. It’s an absolutely phenomenal read. Musk tweeted “excitement guaranteed” before the inaugural flight of Starship, and that could also be applied to reading Reentry. This book is a case study in defeating your naysayers with style.
© 2024 Casey Suire
