[SatNews] Another huge step by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX a private enterprise company, took place moments ago from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, when Falcon 9 lifted off the pad. This success took place after a delay moments before an earlier scheduled take off today. The delay was announced seconds before ignition during live coverage of the test on the Hawthorne, California-based company’s website. The rocket put itself into safe mode after experiencing a “shutdown condition,” SpaceX said on its website.

The Falcon launch vehicle family is designed to provide breakthrough advances in reliability, cost, flight environment and time to launch. The primary design driver is reliability with the primary focus being success of the customer's spacecraft safely to its intended destination.



Like Falcon 1, Falcon 9 is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) powered launch vehicle. It uses the same engines, structural architecture (with a wider diameter), avionics and launch system.

Before today's successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 it was reported that:
Regardless of the outcome, this first launch attempt represents a key milestone for both SpaceX and the commercial spaceflight industry.

The site was visited by Barack Obama on April 15, as seen here,

• Length: 54.9 m (180 ft)
• Width:3.6 m (12 ft)
• Mass (LEO, 5.2m fairing): 333,400 kg (735,000 lb)
• Mass (GTO, 5.2m fairing): 332,800 kg (733,800 lb)
• Thrust (vacuum): 4.94 MN (1,110,000 lbf)li>