Elon Musk almost made history today

The Falcon 1 is a new orbital launch vehicle with modern materials (carbon fiber) and electronics (the Shuttle uses 1970s technology). It has no fins, and dramatically lowers the cost of getting to orbit.

From the <a href="http://www.spacex.com/index.html?section=media&content=http://www.spacex.com/launch_info.php">SpaceX info page</a>:

On Friday, March 24 at 2:30 p.m. California time, the Falcon 1 rocket will begin its journey to orbit, accelerating to 17,000 mph (25 times the speed of sound) in less than ten minutes. Designed from the ground up by SpaceX, Falcon 1 is a two stage rocket powered by liquid oxygen and purified, rocket grade kerosene. On launch day, Falcon 1 will launch into the history books for several notable reasons: –It will be the first privately developed, liquid fueled rocket to reach orbit and the world's first all new orbital rocket in over a decade. –The main engine of Falcon 1 (Merlin) will be the first all new American hydrocarbon engine for an orbital booster to be flown in forty years and only the second new American booster engine of any kind in twenty-five years. –The Falcon 1 is the only rocket flying 21st century avionics, which require a small fraction of the power and mass of other systems. –It will be the world's only semi-reusable orbital rocket apart from the Shuttle. –Most importantly, Falcon 1, priced at $6.7 million, will provide the lowest cost per flight to orbit of any launch vehicle in the world, despite receiving a design reliability rating equivalent to that of the best launch vehicles currently flying in the United States. – The maiden flight will take place from the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands. The customer for this mission is DARPA and the Air Force. The payload will be FalconSat-2, part of the Air Force Academy’s satellite program that will measure space plasma phenomena, which can adversely affect space-based communications, including GPS and other civil and military communications. The target orbit is 400 km X 500 km (just above the International Space Station) at an inclination of 39 degrees.

The best feed now is <a href="http://kwajrockets.blogspot.com">Kimbal's blog</a> (Elon's brother).