An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday to deliver a cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA.
The 208-foot-tall (63-meter-tall) booster, built and launched by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, bolted off its seaside launch pad at 1:52 a.m., slicing the night sky with a bright plume of light as it headed into orbit.
Ten minutes later, the Dragon cargo capsule perched on top of the rocket was released to begin a two-day journey to the space station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 260 miles (420 km) above Earth.