SpaceX finally launches rocket

www.physorg.com...

Well this was a long time coming and a huge relief to the folks over at SpaceX as their funders were starting to make some noise saying such things that "our patience isn't unlimited" and such. A failure today would have most likely spelled doom for this start-up company. But all that seems to be behind them now. Hopefully this will drive down costs, but we shall see.

(AP) -- A new commercial rocket reached space after launching from a Pacific atoll Tuesday but then probably re-entered the Earth's atmosphere after half an orbit because of a problem during the second-stage burn, an entrepreneur said.

Nonetheless, Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technologies, characterized the launch as "a pretty good test" during a post-flight teleconference.

"We successfully reached space and really retired almost all the risk associated with the rocket, so I feel very good about where things are," he said.