CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX's commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen routine supply runs under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

It was the second liftoff of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab staged by California-based SpaceX. The first launch was for a test flight in May, which carried a token amount of non-essential supplies.

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The first-ever year-long mission to the International Space Station will launch in 2015 and feature an American-Russian crew, NASA revealed Friday.

This flight, in contrast, is no test: The spacecraft is carrying 882 pounds (400 kilograms) of key science experiments and other precious gear. The cargo also includes a personal touch: Cups of Blue Bell chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream have been tucked in a freezer for the three station residents.

The company's unmanned Falcon 9 rocket roared into the night sky from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida right on time at 8:35 p.m. ET, putting SpaceX on track to reach the space station Wednesday. The complex was soaring southwest of Tasmania when the Falcon took flight.

Officials declared the launch a success even though one of the rocket's nine first-stage engines was lost during the ascent to orbit, due to an unspecified anomaly.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the Falcon 9's other engines compensated for the shutdown and put the Dragon capsule precisely where it was intended to go. "Falcon 9 was designed to lose engines and still make missions, so it did what it was supposed to do," Shotwell said. "We will learn from our flights and continue to improve the vehicle."

Later Sunday, SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, said the engine failure had "no effect" on the mission.

In more good news, a piece of space junk was no longer threatening the station, and NASA could focus entirely on the delivery mission.

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