5/8: THERE WAS A REPORTED PUSH TO GET STARSHIP TEST #8 TO ORBIT:.Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age Hardcover – by Eric Berger (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
SEPTEMBER 1954
https://www.amazon.com/Reentry-SpaceX-Reusable-Rockets-Launched/dp/1637745273/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
One company dominates the modern space industry: SpaceX, founded by controversial entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002, now sending more payloads into orbit than the rest of the world combined. But Musk didn’t do it alone—the saga of SpaceX is the story of a diverse cadre of true believers in the limitless potential of space travel.
For the first time, Reentry relates the definitive chronicle of how this daring team was able to redefine what it takes to reach the stars.
With Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Eric Berger, author of Liftoff, as your guide, you’ll accompany SpaceX’s innovative thinkers during their toughest trials and most audacious moments, including:
- Creating the first orbital rockets that land by themselves and fly again
- Transporting a 120-foot rocket from Texas to Florida
- Recovering from a “Hell’s Bells” accident before the first Falcon Heavy launch
- Frantically searching the ocean for the first rocket that splashed down intact
- Identifying the $20 part that led to a rocket exploding in flight
- Slicing up an engine days before it launched into space
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:08.3 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:10.2 | Continuing with the senior space writer for Ars Technica, Eric Berger, his new book is Reentry. |
| 0:19.0 | This is Volume 2 in the Chronicles of Elon Musk and SpaceX. |
| 0:23.3 | That doesn't say that yet, but that's how I imagine Eric's books standing up for the next 100 years. |
| 0:29.8 | This is what actually happened on our way to Mars. |
| 0:33.5 | SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the reusable rockets that launched a second space age. |
| 0:38.4 | Where we are right now is December 2015. |
| 0:42.1 | There is a Falcon 9 on a pad in Florida, and it's launching into low Earth orbit in order to demonstrate reusability. |
| 0:51.8 | That's everything. |
| 0:53.5 | Reusability not only means landing the booster so |
| 0:56.7 | but refurbishing it and getting it ready to move |
| 0:59.9 | as fast as possible not once a month |
| 1:03.3 | not once a week not even uh at this point |
| 1:08.0 | every nine days or six days but every two days is that what they eventually get to |
| 1:13.4 | that's right |
| 1:14.3 | this reminded me eric of building liberty ships in the second war |
| 1:18.3 | started with a month and you got it down they could do it in twenty four hours |
| 1:22.6 | to get a ship out to sea |
| 1:24.6 | uh... we come to that day of the launch from uh it used to be called Pad 13. No, it used to be called, |
| 1:33.0 | where do they launch from? It's Cape Town. Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaverville. |
| 1:37.9 | And they call it Slick 40. Slick 40, yeah. Right. Slick 39 is the famous one slick 40 is next door they launch a falcon nine |
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