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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched today in the early morning darkness carrying what could soon be the first commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
The rocket lifted off at 3:44 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida carrying an unmanned version of the private firm's Dragon space capsule.
This morning's successful launch comes after numerous delays and a launch abort on Saturday, which was triggered by an anomalous pressure reading in the combustion chamber of one of the rocket's nine launch engines.
Today "Falcon flew perfectly!!," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter moments after the launch. "Feels like a giant weight just came off my back :)."
At a press conference held after the launch, Musk said that "every bit of adrenalin in my body released at that point," and that the elation he felt was like "winning the Super Bowl."
"I would really count today as a success no matter what happens for the rest of the mission."
NASA administrator Charles Bolden called Falcon 9's flight a picture-perfect launch.
"It's a great day for America. It's a great day for the world," Bolden told reporters afterward.
"There were people who thought that [NASA] had gone away [with the retirement of the space shuttles]. But today says no, we're not gone away at all. We've got the SpaceX-NASA team, and they came through this morning with flying colors."
SpaceX CEO Gwen Shotwell also confirmed at the press conference that, as part of its mission, Falcon 9 carried cremated remains, which were released into orbit.
The ashes were flown as part of a deal with Celestis, a company that specializes in "memorial spaceflights."
Today's payload reportedly contained the remains of more than 300 people, including actor James Doohan—who played Scotty on the original Star Trek television series—and Mercury program astronaut Gordon Cooper. But Shotwell didn't comment on the identities of the ashes.
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