A rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station has launched from NASA's historic moon pad in Florida.
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, which marks a new era of private spaceflight at one of NASA’s most storied bases.
Astronauts flew to the moon from the same spot nearly a half-century ago, and the pad was last used for NASA's final shuttle mission back in 2011.
The launch was delayed on Saturday for almost 24 hours, after engineers found "the movement trace of an upper stage engine steering hydraulic piston was slightly odd."
CEO of Space X, Elon Musk later said on Twitter that "If this is the only issue, flight would be fine, but need to make sure that it isn't symptomatic of a more significant upstream root cause."
He then added "That 1% chance isn’t worth rolling the dice. Better to wait a day."
Musk was delighted with the launch earlier today and posted a picture of it on his Twitter account.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2017
Historical significance
The Kennedy Space Center has served the US as one of the federal government’s most important spaceports. Astronauts flew from there on missions to the moon in the late 1960s, early 1970s, and throughout the 1980s.
Today's launch is part of the center’s transition to a spaceport which is open to public and private missions.
NASA conduced a post-launch news conference from the Kennedy Space Center shortly after the launch and hosted it on their website.
LIVE NOW: Hear from experts on today’s successful @SpaceX cargo launch to @Space_Station: https://t.co/Gac7FTS2cJ Questions? Use #askNASA pic.twitter.com/S3sKGewGxN
— NASA (@NASA) February 19, 2017
