Plumes of exhaust and smoke billow as a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off carrying a Dragon capsule to orbit.

Plumes of exhaust and smoke billow around the lightning masts on Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 8:35 p.m. EDT, carrying a Dragon capsule to orbit.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, built both the rocket and capsule for NASA's first Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS-1, mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX CRS-1 is an important step toward making America’s microgravity research program self-sufficient by providing a way to deliver and return significant amounts of cargo, including science experiments, to and from the orbiting laboratory. NASA has contracted for 12 commercial resupply flights from SpaceX and eight from the Orbital Sciences Corp. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/living/launch/index.html. Photo credit: NASA/Gianni Woods