SpaceX · 2002 to 2013

The first decade, in the company's own words

SpaceX posted an update nearly every time something happened: an engine fired, a stage shipped, a rocket fell in the Pacific. Elon Musk wrote most of the first five years himself. Three Falcon 1 flights failed in a row, and the company had the money for one more. The fourth reached orbit in September 2008.

Those pages are still on the web, some of them, behind redesigns and dead links. We collected the company updates, the launch reports, the congressional testimony and the press from the time, put them back in order, and printed them unedited. 428 pages. Two hundred copies, printed once.

Record2002 to 2013
Updates100+, in order, unedited
Book428 pages, 8.5 by 11 inches
BindingCloth hardcover
Edition200 copies, printed once
Also insideAn essay, a map of Omelek Island, a launch chart
StatusPrinted September 2026, on its way to us
What we made
Drawing: the cloth hardcover, face up, opened to a company update

SpaceX Foundation

The company record, 2002 to 2013: every update we could find, the launch reports, the testimony, the press. 428 pages, cloth hardcover, 200 copies.

Not for sale yetTell me when
Drawing: the Merlin engine on the test stand at McGregor

Atoms Are Cheap, Process Is Pricey

The essay that opens the book: why building a rocket cheaply is a manufacturing problem before it is a physics one. Free to read.

EssayRead

We will say when it is ready

The run is printed and shipping. When copies are in hand, subscribers hear first.