(CNN) -- SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida Wednesday morning, marking what could be a significant step toward commercial space travel.
The craft lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 10:43 a.m. ET.
The launch and a successful re-entry would be steps toward commercial space ventures that could eventually ferry astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. It also coincides with the scaling back of some publicly-funded space programs.
NASA is set to retire its shuttle fleet in 2011.
In July, a test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket was "essentially a bulls-eye," SpaceX officials said after the rocket successfully pushed past the earth's atmosphere and deposited a mock-up of its Dragon space capsule in orbit.
NASA has been flying shuttles in low Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.
NASA has selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the United States will not have its own way to get to the space station. The United States will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.
But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. By this summer, it had spent almost $400 million to get there. SpaceX currently holds a $1.6 billion contract from NASA to transport cargo into space but not people.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, said in July that if all goes well after a series of test flights, SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year.
Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years.
"We want to see a future where we are exploring the stars, where we're going to other planets, where we're doing the great things that we read about in science fiction and in the movies," he said at the time.
Other entrepreneurs in the emerging commercial space travel business say the ether will no longer be confined to astronauts. Spaceport America, a commercial launch facility in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2011.
The company's main tenant, Virgin Galactic, hopes to launch short tourist excursions into space in the near future.
CNN's Rich Phillips contributed to this report.
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