SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket hit its instantaneously launch window, and the booster blasted off at 2:49am ET Saturday morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket's second stage safely delivered the Crew Dragon into orbit, where it will now spend about 24 hours raising its orbit and catching the International Space Station. The spacecraft will undergo tests during that time, but the next major milestone is docking with the station, set for Sunday morning.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that, Falcon 9 rocket's first stage returned to Earth and landed on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft—designed to fly astronauts to the International Space Station from U.S. soil—is ready for its debut flight on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.

It is a first-of-its-kind test mission of a commercially-built and operated American spacecraft and rocket designed for humans.

The Demo-1 uncrewed flight test, targeted to launch March 2, will demonstrate the company’s ability to safely launch crew to the space station and return them home.

“It’s time to fly the SpaceX Demo-1 mission,” said Steve Stich, NASA launch manager and deputy manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “This mission is an important step in returning human spaceflight to American soil. SpaceX and NASA teams are working side-by-side on this mission from start to finish as we have throughout this process. This flight test will inform the system design, operations and drive any changes that need to be made ahead of crew flights. We are ready to learn by flying.”

NASA and SpaceX are working together as public-private partnerships and hoping to build on the success of American companies already delivering cargo to the space station. Demo-1 is a critical step for NASA and SpaceX to demonstrate the ability to safely fly missions with NASA astronauts to the orbital laboratory.

“Demo-1 is our end-to-end flight test to ensure the spacecraft and systems operate as designed before we put crew on board,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX director of crew mission management.

On launch day, SpaceX will command Crew Dragon and Falcon 9’s launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Control Center Firing Room 4, which oversaw the countdown and liftoff of the final 15 space shuttle missions. Falcon 9 is targeted to lift off at 2:49 a.m. from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.