Falcon 1 Ready to Launch Friday 11/25

[Doug_G]

Elon Musk’s Falcon 1 rocket readies for Lauch on Friday 11/25. Check out SpacEx website for updates regarding the launch. This will be the first privately funded orbital space launch. Elon’s goal is to eventually start a manned program with his Falcon 9 rocket. Good luck Elon!! Elon Musk is the founder of PayPal.

[KenWittlief]

awesome accomplishment

with a little bit of marketing and sales tossed in.

There have been three previous launch vehicles developed entirely with private money: Orbital Science’s Pegasus, McDonnell Douglas’s Delta III, and Boeing’s Delta IV Medium*. Pegasus and Delta IV-M have since launched government payloads on a commercial basis. Delta III never had any government dollars anywhere in the program.

[Doug_G]

There have been three previous launch vehicles developed entirely with private money: Orbital Science’s Pegasus, McDonnell Douglas’s Delta III, and Boeing’s Delta IV Medium*. Pegasus and Delta IV-M have since launched government payloads on a commercial basis. Delta III never had any government dollars anywhere in the program.

You’re absolutely correct. And I don’t want to sound like I know it all regarding the space industry, just the tidbits that I picked up from my father who worked on the Delta program. But from what I understand, the cost of Elon’s Falcon rockets are significantly cheaper than other launch platforms and is a relatively new design, Pegasus and the Delta designs are decades old. The Launch was postponed to til 5 pm PST Sat 11/26. Interesting to see how it all works out.