While the Chinese govt. enjoyed a state sponsored space walk this weekend, an American private company, SpaceX, created a rocket from scratch and put it into orbit with the help of just over 500 employees. How about that?
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LIVE COVERAGE: SUCCESS SpaceX Falcon 1 Flight 4 (updated 23:31 GMT)
September 28th, 2008
SpaceX wrote history today as the first private financed company to achieve orbit with a rocket. As Elon Musk stated “this really means a lot”, it can be the beginning of significantly lower launch costs and therefore increased number of launches. After three unsuccessful flights, “fourth time’s a charm” Musk said.
The next launch on SpaceX’ launch manifest will be a Falcon 1 carrying RazakSat for Malaysia. This launch if successful will be followed then by the maiden flight of the much larger Falcon 9 rocket in the second quarter of 2009.
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