Around 8:50pm EST, Elon Musk put out the official word. "Falcon 9 rocket booster has delivered Dragon to its target orbit!," the SpaceX founder and CEO tweeted. SpaceX's first operational flight to the International Space Station launched and reached orbit in roughly 15 minutes—all without a hitch.

SpaceX will use the unmanned cargo capsule (called "Dragon") to handle a $1.6 billion commercial contract with NASA. It was sent to meet the ISS on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its mission to deliver supplies, then bring hardware and experiment samples back to Earth. (You can currently rewatch the festivities from Cape Canaveral through SpaceX.)

If this mission continues smoothly, the capsule should reach the International Space Station on Wednesday morning. It will dock for three weeks before being sent for re-entry on October 28, aiming for a splash landing near the Southern California coast. Tonight's achievements are hopefully a sign of things to come for SpaceX, as this is intended to be the first of 12 cargo flights to the ISS as part of its agreement with NASA.



