Story highlights The SpaceX president says it was "just awesome"

The SpaceX rocket launches on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET Sunday

It's the first of a dozen commercial cargo flights under a contract with NASA

The Dragon capsule is carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS

The SpaceX rocket, the first official commercial flight to the International Space Station, lifted off Sunday night carrying an unmanned cargo capsule.

The Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule launched on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with an orange blaze against the black night sky. About 10 minutes into the flight, the Dragon separated from the rocket and was on its way to the station.

Mission control called it "a picture-perfect launch and a flawless flight of Falcon."

It is is the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the International Space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.

"It's a great evening," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell after the launch. "It's just awesome."

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Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – The SpaceX rocket lifts off Sunday, October 7, marking the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. It was the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the station. Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – People watch as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon capsule are readied for launch Sunday in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – On May 22, SpaceX launched a successful test flight that attached a spacecraft to the International Space Station. It was the first company to do so. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – Dragon's recovery team poses in front of the first commercial capsule to reach orbit and return safely to Earth. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – The Falcon 9 rocket launches on May 22 in Cape Canaveral. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – This image shows how Dragon returns to Earth, under parachutes, to splashdown in the ocean, much like the spacecraft of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – The Falcon 9 rocket awaits May's launch date. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – The first Dragon capsule to make it into orbit and return to Earth was launched in December 2010. Here, crews haul the charred capsule out of the ocean. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – SpaceX's Falcon 9, carrying a Dragon space capsule, launches from Cape Canaveral in December 2010. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Photos: SpaceX launches new era SpaceX launches new era for exploration – This rendering of the Dragon capsule shows the craft's solar panels fully extended. The capsule launched in May extended its panels in orbit. Hide Caption 10 of 10

The launch comes nearly five months after a demonstration mission in which a Dragon capsule successfully berthed at the station and returned to Earth. Shotwell said the Sunday mission isn't "substantially different" from that flight, "with the exception that we got there once."

The unmanned capsule is packed with about 1,000 pounds of cargo -- everything from low-sodium food kits to clothing and computer hard drives. It's scheduled to return in late October with about 2,000 pounds of cargo, including scientific experiments and failed equipment that can be repaired and sent back, ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said.

"These flights are critical to the space station's sustainment and to begin full utilization of the space station for research and technology development," he said.

The Dragon spacecraft is supposed to catch up with the space station early Wednesday. Station Commander Sunita Williams and Aki Hoshide from the Japanese Space Agency will use the robotic arm to grab Dragon and berth it to the station.

Much of Dragon's cargo is material to support extensive experimentation aboard the space station. One deals with plant growth. Plants on Earth use about 50% of their energy for support to overcome gravity. Researchers want to understand how the genes that control that process would operate in microgravity -- when objects are in free-fall in space. Down the road, that could benefit food supplies here on the planet.

The spacecraft is also carrying nearly two dozen microgravity experiments designed and being flown through the Student Experiment Spaceflight Program.

SpaceX is not the only commercial company in the spacefaring business. Within the next few months, Orbital Sciences is expected to fly its own demonstration flight to the space station. Instead of using Cape Canaveral as its launch site, the company's rocket will take off from Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia.

Orbital has a nearly $2 billion contract with NASA for station resupply missions.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is looking well beyond just these cargo flights to the station. SpaceX is one of three companies NASA has selected to continue work developing a human-rated spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Boeing and Sierra Nevada are the other two companies.

The SpaceX plan is to modify the Dragon capsule to carry people.

NASA Administror Charles Bolden praised Sunday's launch as an example of private industry's capability. By hiring private companies to conduct the resupply missions, he said, NASA can focus on exploring even deeper in the solar system, including missions to an asteroid and to Mars.