Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time a non-governmental organization or business has managed to put anything in orbit.
An Internet entrepreneur’s latest effort to make space launch more affordable paid off Sunday when his commercial rocket carrying a dummy payload was lofted into orbit.
It was the fourth attempt by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit.
The Hawthorne, California-based rocket maker was started by multimillionaire Elon Musk, who made his fortune as co-founder of the PayPal Inc. electronic payment system.
The rocket carried a 364-pound (165-kilogram) dummy payload designed and built by SpaceX for the launch.
Wow. Harbinger of things to come, I hope.