PointNiner: SpaceX Falcon 1 Finally Makes It Into Orbit

Well I guess SpaceX CEO Elon Musk won't have to commit suicide after all. His company finally got their Falcon 1 rocket into orbit today following a successful launch from the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Defense Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll. This was Falcon 1's fourth launch attempt with the previous three resulting in failure. The most recent, Flight Three, took place less than one month ago. But today is a new day, and Falcon 1 has become the first privately developed launch vehicle to reach Earth orbit from the ground. This is quite an amazing feat they've accomplished even without the help of Star Trek's beloved Scotty. "As the saying goes, the fourth time's the charm," Musk told his employees after the launch. "It's great to have this giant monkey off my back." While today's launch was only carrying a dummy satellite, this is just the beginning for the space launch startup. Musk and SpaceX are planning several commercial launches in the future as they continue to develop the Falcon family of rockets that they intend to one day use to provide launch services for NASA to the ISS. My hat is certainly off to SpaceX today on their momentous achievement, but I have to concur with PointNiner regular J.B. Does this mean we have corporate-owned ICBMs now?

You can watch SpaceX's webcast of the entire launch of Falcon 1 Flight 4 below. The video is long at 10 minutes, but it is interesting. Note how you can hear the SpaceX employees celebrating in the background following a successful first stage separation. That is because this failed to happen on Flight 3 which resulted in a vehicle loss. Obviously they become overjoyed also when the Kestrel second stage engine shuts down following a successful orbital insertion. Congrats SpaceX!