Speaking of anniversaries, ten years ago today Elon Musk created SpaceX, the first wholly private rocket company.
[That's an artist's illustration of the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulling away from the booster; just sayin' because this kind of thing looks quite real... and soon will be.] I remember the first launch of the Falcon 1 for a suborbital test. It got scrubbed, so I went to lunch with my family. I got a phone call from a friend halfway through the meal an hour later saying they had launched! I was so used to NASA taking at least a day to start things back up that it didn't even occur to me that a small company might be more flexible. It was right around then that I realized Musk was on to something. Now they've had several successful launches, have lots of funding from NASA and other private companies, and have big plans for a heavy lift booster. It's still early in the game, but I have high hopes for this company... very high. Congrats to everyone at SpaceX!
Related Posts: - Falcon 1 launch a success! - SpaceX makes it to space! - SpaceX to launch Dragon capsule December 7 - SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 at 15:00 UT today
