SpaceX Launches Long-Awaited Test Flight
Last Updated 3:35 p.m. ET
A multimillionaire's test rocket soared off its Cape Canaveral launch pad on its maiden voyage Friday afternoon.
SpaceX's brand new Falcon 9 rocket is carrying a mock-up of the company's spacecraft, named Dragon. The goal is to put the capsule into orbit.
The first attempt to launch the rocket was aborted in the final few seconds earlier Friday.
The founder of SpaceX - one of the companies NASA is counting on to help re-supply the International Space Station after the shuttle's retirement - downplayed expectations, saying he believed the maiden flight had a 70 to 80 percent chance of succeeding.
"However, I should point out that is less than the probability of success in Russian roulette," Elon Musk, the co-founder of Paypal, told reporters Thursday. "Remember that scene from 'The Deer Hunter'? That's tomorrow. But not quite as likely."
SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has not released any details about ascent milestones or performance objectives, other than to say the dummy Dragon simulator is bound for a 155.3-mile-high circular orbit tilted 34.5 degrees to the equator.
The launch attempt was carried live on the Web. NASA was honoring a request by the company not to release any video from its own cameras and tracking systems at the nearby Kennedy Space Center.
During a teleconference Thursday, Musk repeated his belief that SpaceX could deliver a manned version of the Dragon spacecraft within three years of receiving a contract from NASA.
"We have designed Falcon 9/Dragon to meet the published NASA human rating standards," he said. "There's only one major development item we need to complete, which is the launch escape system. Our internal timeline is about a two-year development for that launch escape system. We add an additional year of schedule margin on top of that to account for the unknowns.
"So we believe, we're very confident in being able to say that three years from when we are handed a contract to deliver astronauts to the space station, that is when we'll be able to do it. If that were to occur at the end of this year, then at the end of 2013 is when we could begin delivering astronauts."
For more info:
CBS News' Space Place
NASA International Space Station Home