Monday, August 4, 2008

SpaceX Loses Rocket, Gets Investment

SpaceX, the Hawthorne, California-based space rocket startup funded by former PayPal founder Elon Musk, has suffered a major loss as the firm's Falcon 1 rocket failed in a test launch Saturday night. According to SpaceX, a problem with the firm's rocket occurred at stage separation, causing a failure two minutes after launch of the rocket. The loss of the rocket marked the third failure for SpaceX, which has seen two earlier failures in test launches. In a statement about the failure, Musk said that the firm has received a "significant investment" in the firm. No details on that funding were given. The latest SpaceX rocket contained satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense and a Maylaysian R&D project

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