Watch a time-lapse of the Falcon 9 rocket going vertical

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that their initial assessment is that there was “an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.” The company is pursuing a launch in February, assuming the Federal Aviation Administration accepts their mishap investigation report.

The mission is a follow-on from NASA’s planetary defense mission, DART, which succeeded in changing the orbit of an asteroid around its larger neighbor. Liftoff happened at 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 UTC).

SpaceX’s first upgraded Cargo Dragon spaceship departed the International Space Station Tuesday morning with more than 4,400 pounds of research specimens and other equipment, heading for splashdown Wednesday night in the Gulf of Mexico off the west coast of Florida.