As we speak, Elon's private plane is over the pacific to observe a simulated return by the first stage: http://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N887XF
Too much publicity? HAH!
Orbital Sciences has completed over 100 successful launches in 30 years.
Edit: corrected myself down by an order of magnitude to 100. The perils of relying on memory...
If I'm putting a couple hundred thousand dollars aside for my Mars ticket, my money is on SpaceX.
As we speak, Elon's private plane is over the pacific to observe a simulated return by the first stage: http://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N887XF
Too much publicity? HAH!