SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon test capsule launched successfully from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning. It's the first successful launch for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and another step for the future of commercial space flight.

"Beautiful launch! Dragon is in orbit. Will provide status updates as available," Space Exploration Technologies, the private spaceflight company handling the launch, tweeted today.

NASA's COTS program will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station. In 2008, NASA awarded the company, also known as SpaceX, a launch services contract that allowed it to compete for missions using the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles.

"The Dragon capsule has separated from the second stage and is orbit at a 34 degree inclination, 187 miles above Earth," NASA said in a statement. "It's expected to perform two orbits while controllers put the spacecraft through several maneuvers before it re-enters the atmosphere and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of the coast of Mexico."

That landing is expected to occur around 3:30pm Eastern time.

NASA is set to retire the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, after which SpaceX said it will make at least 12 flights to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station. Wednesday's Falcon 9 launch was unmanned, but SpaceX said the Falcon 9 was designed to carry astronauts one day. Today's flight and future flights "will yield valuable flight experience towards this goal," the company said last month.

NASA's own launch of its Discovery shuttle has been delayed numerous times since November due to weather, leaks, and cracks; it's currently scheduled for a February 3 launch.

The Falcon 9 launch was also delayed this week due to a crack that in the rocket's engine nozzle. The crack was repaired Tuesday, in time for Falcon 9 to blast off at 10:43am Wednesday.