"I'm sure you will be receiving thousands of emails, but congratulations," wrote Mars Society Executive Director Chris Carberry in a note to SpaceX founder Elon Musk last night. "In the midst of a lot of gloomy news, this accomplishment has lifted the spirits of a lot of people - a new era of private space flight has now begun."

In addition to the broad range of potential commercial applications this success will eventually enable, Falcon 1 reaching orbit should have a substantial positive impact on the ability of NASA to focus its efforts on developing the Ares rockets and the remainder of the Constellation program.

"This is a major milestone in the process of humanity becoming a spacefaring civilization," said Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin. "Everyone who cares about humanity's future in space should come together today to congratulate Elon and the SpaceX team."