SpaceX launches rocket after delay

SpaceX launched a rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station on Sunday, a day after an unexpected reading from the rocket's second stage forced a delay 13 seconds before liftoff. Sunday's launch was the first from Florida's Kennedy Space Center since the last space shuttle launch more than five years ago, and SpaceX's first from the historic Launch Pad 39A that Apollo 11 used in 1969 on the way to the moon. The Dragon cargo capsule, carrying 5,500 pounds of supplies, experiments, and other cargo, reached orbit on schedule 11 minutes after liftoff, and is expected to link up with the Space Station this week. The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage returned to Earth, successfully landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, an important step in SpaceX's recovery from the explosion of a rocket on a launchpad last September.

Source: Space.com, The New York Times