To embed this piece of audio in your site, please use this code:

<iframe src="https://embed.hpm.io/500852/500818" style="height: 115px; width: 100%;"></iframe>X

Earlier this month, SpaceX conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk. The company routinely launches crews to the International Space Station, frequently launches satellites, and continues to test its Starship rocket in South Texas with goal of reaching the moon and Mars.

With all that happening, it could be easy to forget the commercial space company once struggled to successfully launch a rocket, leaving some to doubt commercial space flight had a serious future.

But, obviously, that all changed. SpaceX now launches more payloads than the rest of the world combined. So, how did all that change?

Eric Berger, senior space editor for Ars Technica, says a lot of that success is because of the relentless will of the company's controversial founder, Elon Musk. But Musk didn't do it all alone.

Berger talked with dozens of current and former SpaceX employees to tell the story of how the company overcame the odds and changed spaceflight forever in his book, Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age.

While many Houston Matters listeners know Berger from his work as a meteorologist for Space City Weather, covering space is also part of his repertoire.

In the audio above, producer Michael Hagerty talks with him about how SpaceX became what it is today, some of the setbacks it endured along the way, and how Musk's personality and political views affect that story.