Around 8:50 p.m. 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.)