Profiles of Dragon Cargo and Dragon Crew capsule configurations. Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket for the first time at 1845 UTC ( 2:45 pm EDT) from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States. Artist rendering of SpaceX Dragon spacecraft delivering cargo to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9, second in the Falcon series of rockets, has a first stage that is powered by nine Merlin 1C engines, and a second stage powered by one Merlin vacuum engine. Today's inaugural launch carried the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit (DSQU), a boilerplate version of the Dragon capsule . The Dragon is intended to take cargo — and possibly people — to the International Space Station through NASA's COTS program. The program is intended to help develop commercial space transportation, a goal that fits with President Obama's recent change of direction for NASA. Under President Obama's new plan, NASA would hand over the mundane task of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) launches to private companies, and instead concentrate on new technology development. Although today's launch succeeded, Musk had said earlier neither the success nor failure of the Falcon 9 would be the ultimate arbitrator of the fate of NASA's new commercial-friendly direction. "They sort of focus everything on us and try to create a situation where our first launch of Falcon 9 is somehow a verdict on the president's policy, which is not right," he said. 
Profiles of Dragon Cargo and Dragon Crew capsule configurations. Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket for the first time at 1845 UTC ( 2:45 pm EDT) from at Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States. Artist rendering of SpaceX Dragon spacecraft delivering cargo to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9, second in the Falcon series of rockets, has a first stage that is powered by nine Merlin 1C engines, and a second stage powered by one Merlin vacuum engine. Today's inaugural launch carried the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit (DSQU), a boilerplate version of the . The Dragon is intended to take cargo — and possibly people — to the International Space Station through NASA's program. The program is intended to help develop commercial space transportation, a goal that fits with President Obama's recent change of direction for NASA. Under President Obama's new plan, NASA would hand over the mundane task of (LEO) launches to private companies, and instead concentrate on new technology development. Although today's launch succeeded, Musk had said earlier neither the success nor failure of the Falcon 9 would be the ultimate arbitrator of the fate of NASA's new commercial-friendly direction. "They sort of focus everything on us and try to create a situation where our first launch of Falcon 9 is somehow a verdict on the president's policy, which is not right," he said. Sister links
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Kennedy Space Center
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Dragon capsule
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COTS
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Low Earth Orbit
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Sister links