SpaceX

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday at 1845 GMT (1445 EDT), reaching orbit 9 minutes later. The rocket lofted an unscrewed [blank] of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which is designed to one day carry both crew and cargo to orbit. 'This has been a good day for SpaceX and a [blank] development for the US human space flight program,' said Robyn Ringuette of SpaceX in a webcast of the launch. In a teleconference with the media on Thursday, SpaceX's CEO, Paypal co-founder Elon Musk, said he would consider the flight 100 percent successful if it reached [blank] . ' Even if we just proved out that the first stage functions correctly, I'd still say that's a good day for a test,' he said. ' It's a great day if both stages work correctly.' SpaceX hopes to win a NASA [blank] to launch astronauts to the International Space Station using the Falcon 9. US government space shuttles, which currently make these trips, are scheduled to [blank] for safety reasons at the end of 2010.