Wednesday, July 15, 2009

SpaceX Racks Up Second Successful Launch

Hawthorne-based SpaceX, the commercial rocket startup funded and headed by PayPal founder Elon Musk, racked up its first commercial satellite launch late Monday evening, and delivered a Maylasian satellite into orbit. SpaceX launched its Falcom 1 rocket at 8:35 pm from the U.S. Army's Kwajalein Atoll, far out in the Pacific Ocean, and delivered Malaysia's RazakSAT satellite into a near-equatorial low earth orbit. The launch was the second successful launch for the firm, which also saw a successful launch back in September, after the failure of three earlier launches. The RazakSAT satellite is targeted at providing high resolution images of Malaysia for land management, resource development and conservation, forestry and fish migration.