FYI,

"Budget Private Rocket Reaches Space on Second Try"
Reuters
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070321/sc_nm/space_rocket_dc_1

: A budget rocket developed by the founder of Internet financial
: services firm PayPal blasted off on Tuesday from a remote island in
: the South Pacific, bolstering hopes of cheaper fares to fly cargo,
: and eventually people, into space.

: The 68-foot (21-meter) booster rocket called Falcon 1 lifted off at
: 9:10 p.m. EDT (0110 GMT Wednesday) from Omelek Island on a U.S.
: military missile test range at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall
: Islands and successfully arrived in space minutes later.

: About five minutes into the flight, a problem cropped up with the
: booster's second-stage engine, which shut down early due to an
: unexpected roll, said Space Exploration Technologies chief Elon
: Musk.

: "We feel that is something straightforward to fix," Musk told
: reporters in a conference call after the flight. "It's definitely a
: good day."

: The rocket's second stage likely re-entered the atmosphere after
: less than one orbit of Earth, Musk added.

: The primary goal of the mission was to demonstrate the Falcon's
: flight capabilities, though the booster carried a pair of
: engineering experiments into orbit as well.

: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was the customer for
: Falcon's flight.

: Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is offering the rocket,
: as well as an untested heavy-lift booster, for sale at about
: one-fifth current market rates.

: Falcon 1, for example, sells for about $7 million.

: The company has launch commitments worth about $400 million for
: flights on the Falcon 1 and heavy-lift Falcon 9 rockets, said
: Gwynne Shotwell, vice president of business development.

: SpaceX also is developing a cargo and crew capsule called the
: Dragon, which will be used for NASA-backed test flights for space
: station transport.

: Despite the glitch during Tuesday's flight, Musk said the next
: mission for Falcon would be to deliver a military communications
: satellite to orbit. "We don't anticipate needing any more
: demonstration flights," he said.

Mark Reiff