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RAW VISION: Private company SpaceX successfully launches its Falcon 9 rocket into space from Florida to resupply the International Space Station.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has blasted off, launching the cargo-laden Dragon capsule into Earth's orbit on its way to the International Space Station for NASA's first privately run supply mission.

The engine fires traced a bright trail across the night sky over NASA's Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, the site of many launches into space after the lift-off at 8.35pm on Sunday (10.35am AEDST on Monday).

Dragon, carrying about 455 kilograms of supplies, is set to reach the ISS on Wednesday, where it will spend about two weeks. This is the first of 12 planned missions in the US firm's $US1.6 billion contract with NASA.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Photo: Reuters

"Everything worked well, the weather stayed good - that was the one concern," aerospace consultant Jeff Foust, editor of The Space Review, said.

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"I think this is the first time the Falcon 9 has launched on the very first attempt," he added, recalling that one launch attempt for a previous mission in May had to be aborted just as it was meant to take off.

"Clearly they're getting a more mature system there that is working very well," Mr Foust said from Cape Canaveral, where he observed the launch.

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