A time exposure captures the trajectory of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as it boosted a Dragon cargo ship into orbit for a two-day flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX

A SpaceX cargo ship packed with more than 5,100 pounds of equipment and supplies -- including 20 mice, a 3D printer, an environmental sensor to measure ocean winds and even an experiment that could lead to better golf clubs -- blasted off early Sunday on a two-day flight to the International Space Station.

Running a day late because of stormy weather Saturday, the 208-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket roared to life at 1:52 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and quickly climbed away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, arcing away to the northeast directly into the plane of the space station's orbit.

The Falcon's nine Merlin 1D first stage engines appeared to perform smoothly, generating 1.3 million pounds of thrust to boost the rocket and its payload out of the dense lower atmosphere.

The first stage fell away just under three minutes after liftoff and the rocket's second stage, powered by a single Merlin engine, ignited to complete the trip to orbit.

The Dragon cargo ship was released into an initially elliptical orbit with a high point, or apogee, of about 224 miles and a low point, or perigee, of around 124 miles. A few moments later, the capsule's two solar arrays unfolded and locked in place.

"Nothing like a good launch," said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX vice president of mission assurance. "It's just fantastic. We worked very hard yesterday, and the weather wasn't quite playing along. Today it was beautiful, the weather cleared up in time, the rain dissipated and from what I can tell at first glance, everything was really perfect."

He said the Dragon capsule's thrusters were working normally and "from the SpaceX team, everybody's really happy, everybody's delighted. There's going to be a party!"

If all goes well, the Dragon's flight computer will carry out a carefully timed sequence of rocket firings over the next two days to catch up with the station in its roughly circular 260-mile-high orbit, pulling up to a point about 30 feet from the lab complex early Tuesday.

At that point, the capsule will go into stationkeeping mode and the lab's robot arm, operated by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, will lock onto a grapple fixture to complete the rendezvous. The arm then will pull the Dragon in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.

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SpaceX launches space station cargo ship