The First SpaceX Rocket for kids: a true picture book
Try, Try, Try, Fly!. Elon Musk and the First SpaceX Rocket 10 pages, fact-checked, at three reading levels, read aloud.
The lesson: Failing three times is part of the work, if you learn each time.
Read the first pages free
This is Elon. He started a rocket company called SpaceX. The big dream? People living on Mars!
In 2002, Elon Musk started a company called SpaceX. SpaceX would build rockets. The big dream was to help people one day live on Mars, the red planet.
In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX. To found a company means to start it from nothing, with no rockets, no launches, and a lot of work ahead. SpaceX had a giant goal: make rockets much cheaper, so that people could one day live on Mars. It was a bold plan. Between 2006 and 2008, its very first rocket would face a long, hard road before it reached space.
Page 1 of 10
Rockets cost a lot. A LOT! SpaceX set out to make them cheaper. Much, much cheaper!
Rockets cost lots and lots of money. That makes space hard to reach. So SpaceX set out to make rockets much cheaper. Cheaper rockets could help people get to Mars one day.
Here was the problem: rockets cost an enormous amount of money. SpaceX was founded in 2002 to change that by making rockets much cheaper. Cheaper means costing less. If going to space cost less, then more trips could happen, and the dream of people one day living on Mars could get closer. But making something cheaper is not easy. First, SpaceX had to make a rocket that worked at all.
Page 2 of 10
The First SpaceX Rocket: a timeline of true facts
- 2002 He founded SpaceX to make rockets much cheaper so people could one day live on Mars. source
- 2006-2008 The first three launches of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket failed. source
- 2008 On September 28, 2008, the fourth Falcon 1 reached orbit, the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to do so. source
- 2015 In December 2015 a Falcon 9 first stage landed back on the ground after launching, so rockets could be reused instead of thrown away. source
3 reading levels
- Read to me (ages 3–5)
- Read together (ages 6–8)
- I'll read (ages 9–12)
The same true story, written three ways. Little kids hear short, bouncy lines; big kids get the details and the numbers.
Quiz time
How many times did Falcon 1 fail before it reached space?
Show the answer
Three times.
Try this at home
- Straw rocket challenge: Roll paper into a tube, tape one end shut, slide it over a straw, and blow to launch it. Try four times, and change one thing each time (longer tube, add fins, new nose). Which try flew farthest?
- Land it like Falcon 9: Drop a paper cup from a chair and try to make it land standing up. Add paper legs, tape, or a weight, and keep testing until it lands upright.
- Builder's notebook: Build a tall tower out of blocks, cups, or cardboard. Each time it falls, draw what happened and write one thing you'll change. Count how many tries it takes!
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