October 8, 2012 - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off at 8:35 p.m. EDT on the first operational commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station.

Atop Falcon is the Dragon spacecraft with 882 pounds of crew supplies, experiments and spare parts. In addition, a data communications satellite will also be deployed. The capsule will return to Earth with approximately 1,600 pounds of equipment from the space station.

Launch photos taken from the Operations Support Building on Kennedy Space Center; a distance of 4.6 miles.