Inside the SpaceX founder factory—and the race to solve the next generation of impossible problems

To observe a SpaceX launch in person, as I did in February, is to witness a stunning and galvanic event. Two of the company’s greatest feats occur in quick succession. First, there’s the launch itself, with the rocket ferrying its payload—perhaps its own Starlink internet satellites, or ones for other businesses and the government, or even humans—and painting the night sky a blazing orange. Then there’s the second act, one that changed spaceflight forever. It begins with a wary silence, and then, suddenly, there’s the rocket’s first-stage booster returning to Earth, announcing itself with a sonic boom and ferrying down from the heavens. It descends, before hovering and then landing—vertically!—back on the launch pad. Usually, it’s in decent enough shape that with a few tune-ups, it’s ready to do the whole sequence all over again, which allowed SpaceX to do more than 160 launches in 2025, and sometimes two in a single day. The operation might appear miraculous, but it’s not. With