Private company SpaceX has successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

The mission, if successful will deliver 454 kg of food, clothing and science gear to the ISS and is part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver supplies.

It is now the first private company to fly to the International Space Station and will restore a US supply line to the station that was cut off by the retirement of the space shuttles last year.

NASA has been dependent on Russian, European and Japanese freighters to service the station, a permanently staffed research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

SpaceX is one of two firms hired by NASA to deliver cargo to the station. Its other contractor, Orbital Sciences Corporation, on October 1 rolled out its first Antares rocket to a new launch pad on Wallops Island, Virginia, for an engine test-firing slated for this month or early November.