On September 28, 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 became the first privately developed, liquid-fueled rocket to reach Earth orbit. The two-stage rocket took off at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time from Omelek Island, a small launch site at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific. Its second stage settled into an elliptical orbit about 500 by 700 kilometers above Earth. It carried a dummy payload of roughly 165 kg, which stayed attached to the stage.
The success came after three earlier Falcon 1 launches had failed, in 2006, 2007 and August 2008. Company lore says SpaceX had money for about one more try, so flight four made or broke the young company. A working small rocket proved the company could reach orbit. Months later, NASA awarded SpaceX a Commercial Resupply Services contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station. That deal paid for the much larger Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule.
Falcon 1 flew only once more, in July 2009, when it put Malaysia’s RazakSAT satellite into orbit. After that, SpaceX retired it to focus on Falcon 9. Still, the September 2008 launch was the first step toward the reusable boosters and private crew flights that are now routine.
Source: Wikipedia – Falcon 1, SpaceNews
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