SpaceX rocket blasts off for supply mission to space station

  • By ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Posted March 1, 2013 at 9:56 a.m., updated March 1, 2013 at 10:20 a.m.
This Jan. 12, 2013, photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

This Jan. 12, 2013, photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon spacecraft onboard, is seen as it blasts off from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, March 1, 2013.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon spacecraft onboard, is seen as it blasts off from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, March 1, 2013.

CAPE CANAVERAL — A private rocket blasted off Friday on a supply run to the international space station.

The unmanned Falcon rocket is owned by the SpaceX company. The Dragon capsule on board is filled with more than a ton of space station supplies and experiments.

Good weather permitted the 10:10 a.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral.

NASA is paying SpaceX to deliver cargo to the space station, and bring back science samples and other goods. This will be the company's third delivery mission.

There's no ice cream this time for the six space station astronauts. The freezers are full. But SpaceX included fruit straight from the orchard.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes to fly people aboard a modified Dragon capsule by 2015.

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