A few minutes ago, Elon Musk shot apples into space. That's an oversimplification, to be fair. The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX — the private space company of which Musk is CEO — contained a lot of other items destined for the International Space Station. In total, the cargo is some 1,200 pounds worth of fruit (picked from an employee's family orchard), scientific experiments, and, for some reason, a song by Jared Leto.

Slate's Bad Astronomy blog, a key source of information for such events, explains the mission.


The rocket moved to the launchpad yesterday

It's not clear, though, that the rocket will make it. Shortly after launch, there were indications that the vessel's solar array didn't deploy as expected.

Musk tweeted some clarification prior to a press conference later today.

A major error could have broad repercussions for the company. Musk has been pushing hard for expansion of private space travel. Last month, he outlined his ongoing battles with major aerospace firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing in his efforts to secure government contracts to run missions like the one launched today. If today's mission encountered a significant problem -- as one did last October -- it hands Musk's opponents a ready-made critique to use on Capitol Hill.

With everyone watching today's flight, this could be a hard one to explain away with data

Update, 11:51 a.m.: Good news -- the solar array has deployed. The crisis appears to have been averted, for now.