Sep 28 2008

Private Space Flight gets closer

Category: economy,energy,science,space,technologyharmonicminer @ 6:09 pm

Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time a non-governmental organization or business has managed to put anything in orbit.

An Internet entrepreneur’s latest effort to make space launch more affordable paid off Sunday when his commercial rocket carrying a dummy payload was lofted into orbit.

It was the fourth attempt by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit.

The Hawthorne, California-based rocket maker was started by multimillionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune as co-founder of the PayPal Inc. electronic payment system.

The rocket carried a 364-pound (165-kilogram) dummy payload designed and built by SpaceX for the launch.

Wow. Harbinger of things to come, I hope.

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