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STORY: An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday to deliver a cargo capsule to the International Space Station for NASA.

The 208-foot (63-meter) tall rocket, built and operated by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, bolted off its seaside launch pad at 3:25 p.m. EDT/1925 GMT, darting through overcast skies as it headed toward orbit.

The Dragon cargo ship, which is loaded with about 5,000 pounds (2,268 kg) of equipment, science experiments and supplies, is due to reach the station on Sunday.

The station, a $100 billion research laboratory owned by 15 nations, flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.

The cargo run is the third by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX as the company is known, under a 12-flight, $1.6 billion contract with NASA. The U.S. space agency relies on SpaceX and a second firm, Orbital Sciences Corp. to fly supplies to the orbit