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8 December 2010 Last updated at 15:46 GMT
A private US capsule that could soon be hauling cargo and even astronauts to the space station has launched on its first demonstration flight.
The Dragon ship launched from Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket at 1543GMT (1043 EST).
The capsule separated about 10 minutes after launch and has reached orbit, its manufacturer SpaceX said.
After completing several manoeuvres some 300km above Earth, the capsule will splash down in the Pacific.
Dragon and Falcon 9 are both products of California's SpaceX company.
The firm has a $1.6bn (£1bn) contract with the US space agency (Nasa) to provide 12 spacecraft with cargo capacity of at least 20 tonnes to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) through to 2016.
The initiative is part of a much wider American policy to place the carriage of freight and crew transport to the ISS in the hands of the private sector.
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