LIFTOFF.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: BOOK - Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX

Though Liftoffs subtitle is Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX, it's much more about the latter than the former, and thank goodness.

Musk is a fascinating character and the "Avengers assemble!" early chapters on the hiring of key employees are rather thrilling, despite being about H.R. management. But if Liftoff has a main character, it's the Falcon 1 rocket. The improbable object of obsessive desire, various iterations of the Falcon get built, hauled around, battered, burned, exploded, rebuilt, and rebuilt again before finally slipping the surly bonds of Earth.

Author Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, had just the right amount of access for the book: enough to give a sense of the people...