Timeline milestone
Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit
From SpaceX and the New Commercial Space Race: From Falcon 1 to Starship
-
Launch
Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit
After three failed attempts, Falcon 1 successfully placed the RatSat payload into low-Earth orbit.
The fourth flight established that the small company could design, build and operate an orbital launcher. The preceding failures nearly exhausted its resources and became central to SpaceX’s culture of rapid iteration, although later vehicles were substantially different designs.Sources & references 1 source
