WASHINGTON (AFP) – Orbital Sciences Corp launched the first test flight of its unmanned Antares rocket Wednesday to the International Space Station, as NASA forges ahead with its plan to privatize U.S. space missions.

The Cygnus capsule, hitched to Orbital Science’s Antares rocket, blasted off at 10:58 am from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, for a Sunday rendezvous with the ISS.