SpaceX just put a rocket into orbit. The Falcon 1, on its fourth attempt, launched from Kwajalein Atoll and delivered a dummy payload to low Earth orbit. The first three flights failed. The company was reportedly weeks from running out of money. Elon Musk has said publicly this was the last shot.
Why this matters
No privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket has ever reached orbit before. The entire commercial spaceflight thesis, that a startup can build launch vehicles for a fraction of what Boeing and Lockheed charge, was riding on this flight. If it had failed, the funding was gone and the company with it. Instead, SpaceX just proved the model works: vertical integration, iterative testing, and a willingness to fail publicly until it succeeds.
My take
Three public failures and a fourth flight with the company’s existence on the line. That is either recklessness or conviction, and today it looks like conviction. The Falcon 1 is too small to be commercially dominant, but the Falcon 9 is already on the drawing board. If SpaceX can scale this approach, the launch industry will never look the same.