Following what a NASA press release called a “flawless countdown,” the SpaceX Falcon-9 booster rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral this morning at 3:44 eastern time. The Dragon spacecraft successfully separated from the booster minutes later; its solar arrays are now deployed and all systems look good as the vehicle chases the International Space Station around the Earth for a rendezvous three days from now. There are still plenty of tests for the Dragon to pass, including of course the climatic docking operation, but so far SpaceX seems to be on track for making a historical first… and perhaps the start of a whole new era in human spaceflight. Exciting stuff.

I did not get up in the wee hours to watch the launch live, but of course that’s no longer necessary in the Internet age: a full hour of coverage is available on YouTube, if you’d like to check it out. (If you just want to see the highlights, you can find the lift-off at 44:43, the spacecraft separation at 54:10, and the deployment of the solar array at 56:20.) I find the audio associated with this clip really amusing… the control voices you hear are SpaceX employees, not NASA people, so there’s a different flavor than what I usually associate with space launches. Everyone sounds so bloody young, for one thing, especially one female voice (I’m not sure who is performing what role). And then there’s the enthusiasm… spontaneous applause breaks out at the moment of lift-off, and again when the Dragon separates from the booster. The announcer has a shake in his voice when he declares at about 55:10 that Dragon is now in free flight orbiting the earth, and the eruption of noise when the solar array opens sounds like a sporting event. It’s endearing, and it’s contagious. These people know they’ve accomplished something very, very big today.

I’m really thrilled for them, and also more than a little jealous. I’ll confess, I wish I was part of their team, forging the future we ’70s kids dreamed of…