The third attempt at sending a Falcon 1 rocket into outer space was failed Saturday night by SpaceX. The company, which also created the design for the Falcon 1 rocket, was founded by Elon Musk, ex-owner of PayPal, and is one of the most prominent privately owned space exploration companies in the world.

Space Exploration Technologies, as SpaceX is officially called, had its first attempt at launching a Falcon 1 in March 2006, but the rocket barely left the launch pad before being lost due to a fuel line leak.

The second attempt at launching a similar rocket failed in March 2007. That time, the Falcon 1 was just about to reach the Earth orbit when contact was lost.

Everything seemed to go well Saturday, when a problem during stage separation appeared. Even though the people at SpaceX don't know why the stages remained stuck together, they said that they will start an investigation that they hope to answer all their questions.

The cargo that the latest Falcon 1 rocket was carrying was comprised of 3 satellites, one of them for the Department of Defense, and the other two for NASA.

Besides them, the rocket was also supposed to scatter the ashes of 208 people that paid the company to do so. The most prominent of them were former astronaut Gordon Cooper and actor James Doohan who played one of the main characters in the first Star Trek series.

Even though his company failed for the third time in as many attempts, Elon Musk said that he will never give up on space exploration. He also announced that the company received a substantial investment that will permit it to continue its activity. Neither the value of the investment, nor where it came from, have been made public.