CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A multimillionaire’s test rocket blasted off on its maiden voyage Friday and successfully reached orbit in a dry run for NASA’s push to go commercial.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket achieved Earth orbit nine minutes into the flight as planned, drawing praise from NASA, the White House and others eager for the company to start resupplying the international space station.
“All in all, this has been a good day for SpaceX and a promising development for the U.S. space program, as we make progress toward expanding the human presence in space,” said launch commentator Robyn Ringuette from the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
SpaceX’s new rocket soared off its launch pad into thin clouds at midafternoon, carrying a mock-up of the company’s spacecraft, named Dragon.
NASA hopes to use the Falcon-Dragon combo for hauling cargo and possibly astronauts to the space station. SpaceX — or Space Exploration Technologies — was founded eight years ago by Elon Musk, who co-founded PayPal.
