Perseverance paid off, as usual, for space transportation company Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX. After three failed attempts, the California-based, privately-funded company managed to launch Falcon 1, a rocket of its own design, into Earth’s orbit. The rocket is now circling the Earth.

SpaceX launched the Falcon 1 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific at 7:16 p.m., Eastern Time. A 70-foot-long rocket powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene carried a dummy space craft to orbital velocity on Sunday night.

The two-stage rocket was the fourth attempt of SpaceX to reach Earth’s orbit.

“We’ve made orbit!”

“There were a lot of people who thought we couldn’t do it — a lot, actually. But, you know, the saying goes, fourth time’s the charm,” Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and CTO, said after Falcon 1 reached Earth’s orbit.

SpaceX developed the Falcon 1 from scratch as part of its main goal of providing reliable and cheap access to space for smaller satellites. This time, the rocket carried just a hexagonal aluminum alloy "payload mass simulator" of approximately 165 kg.

The company is already working on its next project: a bigger rocket called Falcon 9. The Falcon 9 will carry astronauts into space in the “Dragon” capsule which is currently being developed.

SpaceX, a company with about 500 employees, got its hands on one of the most coveted prizes of the new space industry and, after the Falcon 9 project is completed, the company will provide cargo services to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. The California-based company is also working to provide services of carrying people to the ISS, a project that will most likely come exactly when needed considering the fact that NASA planes the launch of its next generation technology for 2015.   

The next generation technology that is currently being developed by NASA includes launching Ares rockets and Orion capsules. Until that launch, the space agency will gladly buy space lift from Musk under the Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) procurements to fill the gap.

“This is just the first step in many,” 37-year-old Musk told his employees on this historic day for the company and the industry as well.

SpaceX had three failed attempts before this success. They launched the first rocket in March 2006, but it failed to reach the orbit due to a fuel line leak. The second attempt came in March 2007, but the SpaceX rocket was lost about 5 minutes after launching.

The third attempt was in August 2, 2008, when mission control lost contact with the space craft after phase 2 of the operation. This time, the rocket was carrying three small satellites for NASA and the Defense Department, along with cremated remains of 200 people including those of Gordon Cooper and James Doohan. This time,SpaceX took no risks and launched a dummy spacecraft.

It was a great day for all SpaceX employees as they watched the whole mission going just as planned on live video shown on the company’s Web site spacex.com. The company was founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002 after he sold the online payment company PayPal for $1.5 billion. PayPal’s buyer was eBay.