NASA has successfully launched a rocket from Australia’s remote Northern Territory, making history as the agency’s first commercial spaceport launch outside the United States.

The rocket blasted off at just past midnight local time Monday from the Arnhem Space Center on the Dhupuma Plateau, near the township of Nhulunbuy, according to Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), the developer, owner and operator of the center.

The rocket is expected to travel more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) into space on its mission to observe the Alpha Centauri A and B constellations – the nearest star systems to the Earth.