Straight from the SpaceX Website this afternoon,

"Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) - Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!!!!!!"

This is a fantastic achievement in the development arc of commercial space, and I'm sure only the first of many to come for SpaceX.  Personally, I find it very exciting to be here at the beginning stages of our evolution into a private spacefaring race.

Who, and what, is next?

For those of you (like me) who found it sneaking up on you, SpaceX could launch the 4th flight of Falcon 1 as soon as today (Sept. 23)!

Like the other launches, I'm sure video will be available live on the Spacex Website.

Via the always excellent A VC, I found out about the new Twitter bot VC Tips.  Bryce Roberts has rounded up several VCs to post short tips straight from the VCs mouth.  While the Twitter format isn't really going to allow for great insights or huge revelations, I'm sure that reminders of the basics are good, as many entrepreneurs have their heads down and forget the basics far too frequently.

We are very excited to announce a partnership with Marc Levenson to provide video as yet one more way for our clients to share their message.  Marc is fun to work with and is genuinely excited by new technology and research, while his 30 years of experience help him communicate even the most complex information clearly and concisely.  I think those of you who do have the opportunity to work with him will find his enthusiasm infectious!

Marc argues that science, technology, and especially biotechnology, get limited coverage on television and radio because people fear what they don't understand. His novel, fun approach relies on using everyday familiar objects as metaphors to make science more relevant to a non-scientific audience.  To learn more about Marc, I encourage you to visit his TV show, Tech Closeup.

In a long overdue, but important post, I would like to welcome, and encourage you to welcome, two new members to the Mains Associates team.

Elizabeth Kelley and Jennifer Small have recently began to work with us both on client projects and in creating original content for our site.  They are just two of our team, and over the coming months, we will be introducting more and more of our team through blog postings, articles, and other pieces of content available on our site.

Elizabeth is a graduate student in biology at Stanford University whose main interests are neuroscience and genetics. In her free time she enjoys reading, dog training, and spending time outdoors.

Jennifer is a freelance writer and photojournalist experienced in promotional, grant, and editorial writing.   Originally from Michigan, she moved to the Bay Area in 2007 to finish her degree in Technical & Professional Writing at San Francisco State University.

Hot on the heels of our article on crude oil from algae comes this article on crude oil from pig manure.  Much like the concept of algal crude oil, the idea is to create a fuel that is as similar to our current compounds as possible.  This makes it easier to integrate into our current infrastructure, a big hurdle for many alternative energy sources, and thus roll out to consumers.

The article describes the process created by Yuanhui Zhang that uses heat and pressure to turn organic compounds into oil.  Creating a high-heat and pressure environment takes energy, so the question on my mind is whether or not the energy we gain from this alternative fuel is more than the energy used to create it.  The same question holds for algal crude as it does for ethanol, hydrogen, or other alternative fuels.  I suppose the ultimate would be to use a renewable source like wind or geothermal to power the manure-to-crude conversion, but this article doesn't indicate that the research is far enough along to get into those engineering questions just yet.