Congratulations to the team at Space X! At 16:26 Pacific time today (Sunday, September 28, 2008), their Falcon 1 rocket achieved orbit around the Earth, the first time a privately funded company has done such a feat with a liquid fuel rocket.
This was their fourth attempt to get to orbit with the Falcon 1 rocket. The first three failed to make orbit for various reasons; each time the company analyzed the problem and was able to move on. This last time, they appeared to have gotten it right. There was no scientific or commercial payload; instead, they launched what's called a "mass simulator"; a hexagonal chunk of metal that simulates an actual payload. It didn't deploy, but instead stayed inside the rocket's second stage as it orbits the Earth. As I write this there is no word on the Space X website about the orbital configuration (height above Earth ...
