From booster landings to astronaut launches, it’s hard to imagine a time when SpaceX struggled. But once it seemed like the company may never get off the ground. Eric Berger, journalist and Ars Technica’s senior space editor, chronicles the company’s desperate first years in his new book Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX, starting with the company's founding 2002 and ending with the successful launch of Falcon 1 in 2008.