Yes, I heard about it too, unfortunately, even if it was a conventional launch, this mornings fog wouldn't allow me to see it. I would imagine the release would be quite high anyways. I think they said its at 8:19am
Yes, many times before. The first private company to achieve orbit (I believe) was SpaceX did it. Going back to the 60's, NASA did the X-15 program.
I'm a child of the space age so I've always followed the space program. Guess that's why I play with High powered rockets to this day!