Awesome video: http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php
by Paul Marks
PayPal founder Elon Musk's civilian spaceflight company, SpaceX, achieved its first commercial success this week after its Falcon 1 rocket lofted a Malaysian Earth-imaging satellite into orbit.
The launch late on Tuesday from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands inserted the RazakSAT spacecraft into a near-equatorial orbit at an altitude of 695 kilometres.
Malaysia hopes that RazakSAT, which will fly over its territory 12 times a day, will help scientists better manage the country's forests, farmland and marine resources.
The launch for its first paying customer is a big step for SpaceX, since the firm has won a contract from NASA to haul cargo to the International Space Station. Until now its Falcon 1 rocket had only lofted a dummy payload successfully – before that it had three launch failures. …
SpaceX launches first commercial satellite to orbit
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