Space Exploration Technologies Corp. announced its maiden test flight of the Dragon space capsule successfully launched into orbit and returned to Earth on Wednesday, pocketing a new milestone in the commercial race to provide space transportation services for NASA.

The demonstration makes the company, known as SpaceX, the world's first commercial provider to re-enter a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit. Only five nations--- the United States, Russia, China, Japan and India---and the European Space Agency, have been able to perform this feat.

Dragon launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:43 a.m. PST from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The capsule orbited Earth at more than 17,000 mph, re-entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed into the Pacific Ocean approximately 3 ½ hours after launch. 

This first launch for Dragon, and second for Falcon 9, comprise the first test flight under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. COTS will supply cargo flights to the International Space Station.

SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., is considered one of the major companies competing to provide crew and cargo transportation services to the space station for NASA after the space shuttle program retires in 2011. As part of a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract awarded in 2008, SpaceX will fly at least 12 cargo missions to and from the space station. 

The company's Dragon, a reusable spacecraft, is designed to carry several tons of cargo or up to seven passengers at a time for Earth orbit flights.

Part of the objective for the first Dragon demonstration was to test whether the spacecraft could launch and separate from the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, orbit Earth, receive commands and re-enter the atmosphere. The launch was originally scheduled for Tuesday but cracks in the rocket's second-stage engine nozzle were discovered. 

Dragon will perform a second and third test mission next year, which will include a fly-by of and docking to the space station. Falcon 9 first successfully launched in June.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden commended SpaceX in a statement Wednesday, calling commercial companies the new explorers who “are to spaceflight what Lindbergh was to commercial aviation."

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