Falcon 1 reaches orbit

By 2008, SpaceX was on the brink. Its first three Falcon 1 launches had all failed, each one consuming money and morale, and the company was nearly out of cash. Musk has said he had enough funds for exactly one more attempt.

On 28 September 2008, Falcon 1's fourth flight lifted off from Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll and reached orbit carrying a mass simulator — becoming the first privately developed, fully liquid-fueled rocket ever to do so. It was a watershed moment not just for SpaceX but for the entire idea of commercial spaceflight.

The success arrived just in time. Three months later, NASA awarded SpaceX a ~$1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract — a lifeline that validated the company and funded the leap to Falcon 9. Without that fourth-flight success, SpaceX would almost certainly not exist today.