The first commercial spacecraft designed to return to Earth was successfully launched today from Cape Canaveral.

The Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 is carrying a capsule named Dragon.

The company, known as SpaceX, hopes to place the capsule in orbit and then bring it back to Earth three hours later. If it succeeds it will be the first time a commercial business has recovered a spacecraft re-entering from orbit.

The plan is for Dragon to circle the world twice, then parachute into the Pacific Ocean, 500 miles off the Mexican coast.

NASA is hiring companies like SpaceX to take supplies to the International Space Station following next year's shuttle retirement. Taxi trips for astronauts may follow.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.