With a tremendous roar from its 33 engines, the rocket broke free of its launch mount and proceeded to step flawlessly through all of the expected stages of the ascent to space.
At precisely two minutes and forty-four seconds into the flight, the lower section, the booster, separated from the upper section, the ship.
After that, the ship started up and sailed across the Atlantic and southern Africa.
Stunning images of Earth were captured by video cameras more than 100 miles above the surface.
Next was the re-entry mission, which required the ship to drop to an ocean splashdown.
Just before radio contact was broken, amazing scenes were captured on video once more as scorching gases engulfed the car.
