[net.columbia] Conestoga I Launch

sjb (09/09/82)

Space Services, Inc., made their first successful launch today,
as Conestoga I lifted off from Matagorda, Texas.  It was the
first time that a privately owned company has launch a rocket.
The surplus Minuteman solid motor, bought from NASA for $356K,
carried the rocket up to a suborbital flight where it released
its payload, 400 pounds of water; both fell into the Gulf of
Mexico later, just as planned.