Their first mission was to visit the International Space Station. Previously this had only been managed four times and only by government-backed spaceships - from Russia, the US, Japan, and the European Space agency. SpaceX is the first privately funded company. Its space capsule, Dragon C2, left Cape Canavarel on 22 May, so the whole mission was completed in 10 days.

The Dragon reached the Space Station with its cargo of supplies, and then returned successfully to Earth to land, as planned, in the ocean near Mexico. SpaceX technicians had monitored the voyage and were there to retrieve the vessel from the ocean and bring it back to land.

Now that the first mission has been a success, it is expected that SpaceX will make future voyages to the space station and take essential supplies there. This is the first stage in the US government's plan to get private companies more involved in space exploration.

You can see pictures of the mission here.