The rocket, carrying the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, lifted off at 8:35 p.m. ET Sunday, heading for a rendezvous with the International Space Station.

The craft is slated to arrive at the space station on Wednesday to deliver some 1,000 pounds of cargo to the astronauts housed there.

In May, a demo cargo flight to the space station.

Sunday night's launch marked the company's first official resupply mission as part of a four-year, $1.6 billion contract to launch a dozen operational missions to the station.

"This was a critical event in spaceflight tonight," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement made soon after the launch. "We're once again launching spacecraft from American soil with the supplies our astronauts need in space. NASA and the nation are embarking on an ambitious program of space exploration."