March 21, 2007 7:17 AM PDT
Privately owned SpaceX officially became a space power on March 20 when its Falcon 1 rocket zoomed about 200 miles above the Earth.
In his postflight blog, billionaire owner Elon Musk acknowledged some problems but was still pleased with the company's second launch attempt, calling it "pretty good." Musk said that more than 95 percent of the systems on the Falcon 1 tested successfully. The biggest glitch was a roll during the second stage that prevented the rocket from achieving full velocity and sending its payload into orbit.
Shown here from a video of the launch, the engines of the Falcon 1 have ignited about three seconds before scheduled liftoff.
Photo by SpaceX
