Liftoff! SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket Debut

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Light My Fire

SpaceX

The engines ignite on SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket as the clock ticks down to zero for the first ever launch of the brand new private rocket backed by millionaire Elon Musk on June 4, 2010.

Preflyte

SpaceX

Falcon 9 prior to its first flight

Here to Go

SpaceX

See photos of SpaceX's landmark first launch of its new Falcon 9 rocket on June 4, 2010. California-based SpaceX is developing new Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon spacecraft to send cargo and possibly people into orbit. Here, SpaceX\'s first Falcon 9 rocket i

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.