SpaceX’s first three rockets failed, and the fourth nearly didn’t fly.
By August 2008, SpaceX had lost three Falcon 1 rockets in a row, and Elon Musk had burned through most of the $180 million he made from PayPal. He had, in his words, “virtually no money.” The fourth Falcon 1 reached orbit on September 28, 2008. Then, two days before Christmas, NASA called.
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