

Falcon 1 Successfully Delivers RazakSAT Satellite to Orbit - andeka
http://spacex.com/updates.php

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spkthed
I'm so glad to see other companies actually picking up the slack on space
exploration. Hopefully they'll continue to pick up steam since it's looking
like government funded exploration is more and more dead.

There's no reason that anyone under 30 today can't at least visit space
cheaply in the future, unless we just give up.

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mustpax
SpaceX already got a large contract with NASA to haul cargo up to the
International Space Station when the shuttles retire in 2010. So it seems that
even the government admits that these guys can do it better for cheaper:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7800721.stm>

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sketerpot
Slight correction: the government admits that SpaceX can do it better and
cheaper _if they can deliver on their predictions._ NASA is paying for a
series of test flights to determine whether or not that's actually the case.

Remember, the Falcon 9 hasn't actually launched yet (although much of the
design is shared with the Falcon 1). I'm really looking forward to its first
test launch, which should be coming up before just too long. Their ground crew
overhead is impressively low.

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andeka
[http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=40&cat=re...](http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=40&cat=recent)

Highlight video of launch.

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sketerpot
It's so beautiful.

