Falcon 1 Flight 4 Liftoff

Year: 2008
Creator: SpaceX
Company: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
Location: Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands
Room: The Rebuild ↗

Description

This photograph shows the Falcon 1 rocket of SpaceX as it rises above Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean on September 28, 2008. It was the fourth Falcon 1 launch, and the first three had failed.

Importance

Elon Musk, a co-founder of PayPal, started SpaceX in 2002. This flight made SpaceX the first private company to put a liquid-fuel rocket into orbit. In August 2008, Founders Fund, which former PayPal executives ran, had invested $20 million in SpaceX after the third failure.

Interesting fact

Musk said that Falcon 1 cost approximately $100 million to develop, with the three launches that failed.

Sources

SpaceX Successfully Launches Falcon 1 Rocket Into Orbit ↗Space.com · 2008-09-29
Private rocket company SpaceX gets $20M from The Founders Fund ↗VentureBeat · 2008-08-06
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. prospectus (Form 424B4) ↗US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · 2026-06-12
SpaceX free writing prospectus for its initial public offering (Form FWP) ↗U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-06-04