Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX

by Eric Berger

Here was her first real taste of Musk’s management style. Don’t talk about doing things, just do things.

The first Falcon 1 launch attempt came a mere three years and ten months after Musk started SpaceX. The company reached “space” in four years and ten months. It made orbit in six years and four months. It did all of this starting with just three employees, limited government funding, and building a rocket from scratch with mostly in-house components for the engine and rocket.