A new SpaceX teaser video hints at a 'big' announcement on 5th April:

It looks to be regarding development of SpaceX's new heavy-lift vehicle, the Falcon Heavy (previously Falcon 9 Heavy or F9H).

SpaceX: Something Big Is Coming
Elon Musk to Hold Press Conference in Washington Tuesday

WASHINGTON – Elon Musk, CEO and Chief Technology Officer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), will hold a press conference on Tuesday, April 5th at the National Press Club in Washington to discuss his company’s latest venture.

EVENT: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to Talk About the Next Big Thing
TIME: 11:20 AM EDT (4:20 PM BST)
DATE: Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
LOCATION: National Press Club, Zenger Room

Can’t make it in person?
The press conference will be webcast live at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/spacex

Ken Anthony raised an interesting point. When the Dragon is manned, will astronauts board the vehicle when the F9 is still horizontal? I don't see why not... I'm assuming the crew will board before they start propellant loading, and raising the F9 to vertical and loading it with fuel shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

That would be typical of the SpaceX attitude. To board a NASA spacecraft, you ride an elevator up a hugely elaborate support gantry, and walk across an access arm. To board the Dragon... you climb an ordinary stepladder ;-)

And so it begins...

LOS ANGELES - SpaceX has signed a $492 million deal with a satellite phone company to launch a fleet of next-generation commercial satellites aboard its Falcon 9 rocket.

• SpaceX has deal to launch commercial satellites -- MSNBC

That's half a billion dollars that's now not coming to the European launch industry. What ya gonna do, Arianespace?

Heartiest congratulations to Elon Musk and the SpaceX team for a stunningly successful maiden flight of the Falcon-9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft demonstrator payload.

The vehicle was launched from LC40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 2:45EDT yesterday. Both stages appeared to function as designed, and placed the Dragon payload in an approximately 250km high orbit. Musk later reported that the rocket's second stage and dummy Dragon capsule hit "essentially a bullseye". The apogee, or high point, was about 1 percent higher than planned and the perigee, or low point, was 0.2 percent off.

Some minor technical issues were noticed, such as a slow roll of the upper stage starting at around T+6 minutes. The roll did not affect the trajectory performance. It also appears that the first stage broke up on re-entry, and was not able to be recovered. SpaceX will address these issues prior to the next mission, the first launch of a functional Dragon spacecraft for evaluation by NASA for ISS cargo resupply. That mission is currently scheduled for "this summer".

This is about the best Youtube video I've found of the launch so far:

More details and discussion:

• Falcon 9 booster rockets into orbit on dramatic first launch -- Spaceflight Now
• Falcon-9 Post-Flight Teleconference -- RLV News
• Shuttle successor succeeds in first test flight -- MSNBC
• SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket enjoys successful maiden flight -- BBC News

The Falcon-9 launch also caused a stir in Australia...

• Oh, those Falcon UFOs! -- Bad Astronomy

Update:
Some interesting nuggets from the post-flight telecon:

• SpaceX has spent $350-400M on Falcon 1 and 9, and another $150-200M on Dragon development, including NASA money and outside private investment.
• The launch escape system will be a 'pusher' attached to the base of the capsule, not a tractor (tower) system as with Apollo. The eventual intention is to use the LES for powered landings on land (as with Soyuz).
• Musk is in initial discussions with NASA on a public-private partnership for the development of a "super-heavy" lift vehicle. (Rocketeer: The current SpaceX test facilities at MacGregor in Texas are at least big enough to accommodate a launcher of Jarvis class).
• Musk will be announcing a number of major launch contracts shortly, including some which were signed before the F9 launch. (Rocketeer: There is speculation that this includes support for the Iridium NEXT telecoms constellation).
• SpaceX has been profitable for the past 3 years. Its current order book is worth $2.9 billion.
• Musk: It is my greatest hope that SpaceX will one day allow almost anyone to go to space.

Update II

If the stories about SpaceX's upcoming launch contracts are true, then there will be a cold wind blowing through the offices of ULA and Arianespace right about now. It is blatantly obvious that current large European aerospace contractors cannot compete with SpaceX on price (case in point: the cost of the Jules Verne ATV was more than twice as much as the entire SpaceX development programme: ground facilities, launchers and spacecraft).

Someone needs to lead development of European cheap access to space, to meet the competitive challenge of SpaceX.

It might as well be us.

The UK firm Avanti Communications has hired SpaceX to launch its first communications satellite HYLAS aboard a Falcon-9. Launch is expected sometime between March and December 2009.

Avanti Communications Group is the only licensed fixed satellite operator headquartered in the UK (and one of only eight such groups operating in Europe).

Update
The contract also includes options for up to three additional satellite launches. If Avanti were to exercise those options, the contract value would be roughly $150M. (Source: SpaceX).