Photos: Falcon 9 breaks apart en route to ISS

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in 10 minutes Thursday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies and experiments.

The launch of Telkomsat’s Merah Putih 2 satellite came more than five years after the company’s last launch aboard a SpaceX rocket. Liftoff occurred at the opening of a two-hour window at 3:11 p.m. EST (2011 UTC).

Technicians working at launch pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia completed the final loading of cargo into Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship late Tuesday, and the Antares rocket was raised vertical again in preparation for Wednesday’s countdown.