SpaceX's Falcon 1 makes orbit after four attempts

It's been a long road plagued with disappointments and major mishaps, but SpaceX (and founder Elon Musk) has finally made history -- on Sunday the company's Falcon 1 rocket reached orbit. After three attempts to bring the dream to life, the space exploration company succeeded in putting the first privately-developed rocket into space. The liftoff was seen live during a webcast, and the company's site was continuously updated with news, including a message written at 16:26PDT reading:

T+0:08:21 Falcon 1 reached orbital velocity, 5200 m/s

Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) - Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!!!!!!

Needless to say, after the trials and tribulations SpaceX has gone through (including the loss of Star Trek star James Doohan's ashes), this must be welcome relief... as well as the birth of a potentially lucrative new enterprise. Er, no pun intended.

[Via Slashdot; Thanks, Kenneth]

[solu @ Sep 29th 2008 1:15AM]

video is already on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eATJS-aKrD8

[brando_commando @ Sep 29th 2008 9:27AM]

Is it just me, or does the "Video replays coming soon" message have some sarcastic undertone to it?

[Film_Geek @ Sep 29th 2008 1:20AM]

Is SpaceX public? I'm buying stock. Imagine the money in twenty years.

[cesium @ Sep 29th 2008 1:34AM]

No, but they were talking about doing so in late 2009

[Film_Geek @ Sep 29th 2008 2:21AM]

Thanks cesium, I'll be keeping a look out with these guys.

[gad get @ Sep 29th 2008 1:29AM]

Usually when someone says "no pun intended," what they're really saying is, "hey, notice my clever pun!"

[KNG @ Sep 29th 2008 1:38AM]

haha u got that from Maddox didnt you

[Monte Zuma @ Sep 29th 2008 1:43AM]

For some odd reason, I feel that you would use air quotes in conversation quite often.

[GaryZ @ Sep 29th 2008 1:31AM]

now the govt can't hide their conspiracies with aliens from us anymore...

[who? @ Sep 29th 2008 1:38AM]

What moon landing?

[ED @ Sep 29th 2008 2:03AM]

What F304? And I've never heard of a Ha'tak.

[tha-don @ Sep 29th 2008 4:32AM]

what dead hooker in my trunk?

[Plothole @ Sep 29th 2008 5:43AM]

It will be a sad day for many when they realize there really never was a conspiracy.

Well I guess not really... conspiracy junkies are pretty resourceful. They'll find ways to continue their crazy beliefs, no matter how much evidence is stacked against them.

[Kamokazi @ Sep 29th 2008 10:57AM]

@Plothole

Case in point: Flat Earth Society

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/

Those people scare the hell out of me.

[artie Lange @ Sep 29th 2008 1:37AM]

Sex Panther > Elon Musk

[Ian @ Sep 29th 2008 1:41AM]

lol o Bergundy

[Ryan Trevisol @ Sep 29th 2008 8:58AM]

60% of the time, it works every time.

[Link2877 @ Sep 29th 2008 1:39AM]

wooo lets make way for the evil ruthless mega corporations to commercialize space, Just like sci-fi has been to predicting for decades. lol



No I'm joking this is pretty awesome and I'm happy for them I can't wait to able to travel from one side of the world to the other in less then an hour.

[Willj @ Sep 29th 2008 3:13AM]

But it says the USA Airforce on the side of the rocket, doesn't that mean that it was funded in some way by the military/government? o_O

[taka @ Oct 2nd 2008 10:03PM]

The development was entirely private, however, the USAF and DARPA sponsored Demo Flight 2.

[Mike @ Sep 29th 2008 4:17AM]

So was that 3 attempts or 4 attempts?

[randombloke @ Sep 29th 2008 7:51AM]

Three failed attempts before this (fourth) successful attempt.

[whowhatme @ Sep 29th 2008 9:13AM]

cool, now i'd like my moon-hotel pls, kthxbai

[Jon Acheson @ Sep 29th 2008 11:35AM]

Awesome news! Now hopefully they can launch the Falcon 9 successfully, and start sending people to the ISS.

[SniffTheGlove @ Sep 29th 2008 12:04PM]

Well Done, A great feet of engineering.

One day I too will reach orbit, until then I better keep to my HPR launches

[Mike Schmitt @ Sep 29th 2008 1:16PM]

In fact the Falcon 1 is a great target for the Air Force. Could it be that the first three were actually shot down in a test of the DeathRay?

[Mark @ Sep 29th 2008 4:51PM]

Beam me up, Scotty....

[fanthem @ Sep 29th 2008 8:29PM]

Sorry. He can't.