Every time I read the phrase “meteoric rise”, I think about how it is a dumb metaphor because when we see meteors, they are falling towards the Earth. We should instead use “meteoric descent” as a metaphor for things that dramatically catch fire and plummet to Earth in a violent crash (e.g., Theranos).
I wondered when it started being used as a phrase. According to Google’s Ngram Viewer, it really took off in the early 20th century. It is hard to tell where it actually originated as many texts that are found with the Ngram Viewer have the wrong date.