Private Company Launches Its Rocket Into Orbit
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By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: September 28, 2008
A privately financed company launched a rocket of its own design successfully into orbit on Sunday night, ushering in what the company's founders hope will be a new era of spaceflight.

It was the fourth launching attempt by the company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, which was founded by Elon Musk, an Internet entrepreneur born in South Africa.

"We've made orbit!" Mr. Musk exclaimed to his employees at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., proclaiming the moment "awesome."

"There were a lot of people who thought we couldn't do it — a lot, actually," he said after thanking his employees. "But, you know, the saying goes, fourth time's the charm."

Mr. Musk, 37, founded SpaceX in 2002 after selling the online payment company he helped found, PayPal, to eBay for $1.5 billion.

SpaceX, which has more than 500 employees, captured one of the most coveted prizes of the new space industry: a commercial orbital transportation services contract worth as much as $100 million. Known by its acronym, Cots, the program encourages private-sector alternatives to the space shuttle.

The company is developing a larger rocket, the Falcon 9, to provide cargo services to the International Space Station for NASA after the shuttle program winds down in 2010. The company also hopes to adapt its technology to carry people to the station, which could help bridge the gap until the debut of the next generation of NASA spacecraft, planned for 2015.

"This is just the first step in many," Mr. Musk told his team.