FYI,

"Successful Launch for Falcon 1 Rocket"
Space.com
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/004

: The Falcon 1 booster redeemed itself Sunday with an electrifying
: launch that put an exclamation point on six years of hard work and
: disappointment for SpaceX, the startup company chartered to
: revolutionize space travel.

: The 70-foot-tall rocket successfully delivered a 364-pound hunk of
: aluminum to orbit on the launcher's fourth flight, ending a streak
: of three consecutive Falcon 1 failures dating back to 2006.

: "That was freakin' awesome," said Elon Musk, CEO and chief
: technical officer of Space Technologies Corp.

: Musk established SpaceX in 2002 and funded the company from the
: fortune he earned from starting Zip2 and PayPal.

: "We made orbit thanks to the hard of work of SpaceX and all you
: guys," Musk told a crowd of employees at the company's headquarters
: in Hawthorne, Calif.

: Musk, who appeared speechless during his address to workers, said
: his nervous system had been frazzled by the successful launch.

: "There are a lot of people that thought we couldn't do it, but as
: the saying goes, fourth time's the charm," Musk said.

: The mission logo for the launch, known as Flight 4 in SpaceX
: parlance, includes two four-leaf clovers symbolizing the end of the
: rocket's string of bad luck.

: "Getting to orbit, that's just a huge milestone," Musk said. "There
: are only a handful of countries on Earth that have done it. It's
: normally a country thing, not a company thing."

: The rocket reached the end of a smooth countdown at 7:15 p.m. EDT
: (2315 GMT) Sunday. Unlike previous countdowns riddled by
: last-second aborts, this time the rocket's Merlin 1C engine ramped
: up to 78,000 pounds of thrust and the black-and-white launcher was
: cleared for takeoff.

: The rocket flew east from the company's launch site on Omelek
: Island at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. The
: Falcon 1's first stage completed its burn two-and-a-half minutes
: after liftoff, and the spent booster separated from the rocket's
: second stage five seconds later.

: Stage separation was the moment of failure during the Falcon 1's
: third flight in August, but this time the critical event occurred
: as planned.

: SpaceX employees gathered inside the company's massive assembly
: hangar let out cheers as the second stage Kestrel engine fired and
: propelled the rocket away from the first stage.

: The two halves of the 11.5-foot-tall metal fairing were let go
: about 30 seconds later, prompting another round of applause from
: company workers.

: The Kestrel burned for nearly seven minutes before shutting down
: once on-board computers detected the rocket had arrived in orbit.

: Then the party began.

: "I want to have a really great party tonight," Musk told his
: employees. "I don't know about you guys."

Mark Reiff