Watch the Falcon 9 launch from pad 39A

The mission came less than a day after SpaceX announced Albania as the latest country to gain access to the service. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 1:40 a.m. EDT (0540 UTC).

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two Russian cosmonauts will ride a Soyuz ferry ship to the International Space Station early Friday, the first step in a record crew rotation requiring two launches and two landings with four different spacecraft in just three weeks.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster descended under engine power to a floating landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, notching the first-ever rocket landing at sea minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral with a supply ship hauling 3.5 tons of cargo to the International Space Station.