SpaceX Performs Perfect Launch and Deploys Satellite Successfully (Video)

July 14, 2009

Elon Musk's SpaceX makes history. Again.

Granted, SpaceX was successful in getting Flight 4 into orbit last September, but this is the first time the space start-up has successfully put a commercial payload into orbit.

In this case, SpaceX's first happy customers are Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn.Bhd. of Malaysia and SaTReCi who co-developed the RazakSat satellite. A little over an hour into the flight of the Falcon 1, it was confirmed that the second stage rocket had been restarted, deploying the satellite into its correct orbit.

This launch comes hot on the toes of space shuttle Endeavour's fifth scrubbed launch earlier in the day, but there was very little warning that the Falcon 1 would be taking to the skies from Kwajalein Atoll. SpaceX rarely gives much advanced warning of their launches, and Flight 5 was just as mysterious as the previous flights. But that didn't take away from the suspense leading up to a flawless blast off (after a short delay due to bad Pacific weather).

Congratulations SpaceX, now THAT is how you get stuff into space --@Discovery_Space

For more SpaceX updates, I'm pretty sure news will appear on the SpaceX homepages... once they finish celebrating that is...

Congratulations SpaceX!

In other news: Approximately an hour after the successful Flight 5 of the Falcon 1, a magnitude 3.2 earthquake shimmied the ground beneath SpaceX's Hawthorn, CA, rocket factory. I'm sure that nobody would have noticed -- they would have been too busy popping the champagne -- but I hope they vibration-proofed the computers on the ground as well as the ones launched on the rocket... Just a thought.

Source: The Space Fellowship

Comments

[Nasir]

Oh Man! What a rush. This is the kind of bootstrap operation that is going to take humanity into space finally. Well done SpaceX.