<p>After three failed launches, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk scraped together enough funding to launch a fourth version of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket. On September 28, 2008, Musk's gamble paid off when the <a href="http://www.spacex.com/press/2012/12/19/spacex-successfully-launches-falcon-1-orbit">Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to orbit Earth</a>. The rocket is seen here lifting off from the Reagan Test Site in the Marshall Islands.</p>

After three failed launches, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk scraped together enough funding to launch a fourth version of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket. On September 28, 2008, Musk's gamble paid off when the Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to orbit Earth. The rocket is seen here lifting off from the Reagan Test Site in the Marshall Islands.

Photograph from NASA

Pictures Show a Decade of SpaceX Making Spaceflight History

While chasing CEO Elon Musk’s dream of sending humans to Mars, the private company has set a number of industry records.

Against a bright blue sky and the clamor of roaring applause, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket completed a (mostly) successful first flight on February 6, 2018. The huge rocket is now the most powerful launch vehicle in operation, rivaling the capabilities of the Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the moon during the Apollo era.

The milestone moment for SpaceX included the launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral, as well as near-simultaneous landings of the Falcon Heavy's reusable side boosters. However, the central core—which was supposed to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean—failed to properly fire its engines and slammed into the sea at about 300 miles an hour.

Still, the rocket's upper stage and payload, a cherry-red

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