Space Exploration Technologies Corp. hit a key milestone Wednesday morning, successfully launching and putting into orbit its commercial Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

It was the Hawthorne commercial rocket developer’s first demonstration flight of the Falcon 9 for NASA, which hopes to use the SpaceX’s Falcon and its Dragon capsule to resupply the International Space Station when the Space Shuttle fleet is retired.

While initially unmanned, the Dragon eventually could make commercial trips with a crew.

The capsule successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico later in the morning.

The event was streamed live from the company’s web site, and is archived at the NASA web site.