Washington, Dec 8 : The first commercial space capsule blasted off Wednesday in a test flight that developers hope will set the course for the vehicle to carry cargo and eventually humans into space.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon space capsule lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10.43 a. m.

The craft was developed by California-based company Space Exploration Technologies Corp, or Space X, which is one of several firms NASA has contracted with to begin delivering cargo to the International Space Station.

NASA also hopes to use commercial craft to carry astronauts on routine missions into space. Space X has said the Dragon capsule could also be easily used to take humans aloft.

The Dragon is set to orbit Earth twice before falling back to the surface later Wednesday.

NASA is set to retire the ageing fleet of space shuttles next year and plans to transfer delivery of goods to the space station to commercial providers under long-planned efforts to expand cargo delivery under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS) programme.

Space X has been contracted to make at least 12 supply flights to the station. US President Barack Obama caused controversy earlier this year, when he scrapped plans to return humans to the moon aboard a next-generation NASA-developed craft and instead use the commercial providers to also bring astronauts into space.(DPA)