SpaceX capsule docks at International Space Station

About 250 miles above northwest Australia, a cargo-carrying space capsule linked up with the International Space Station, marking the first time a privately built and operated vehicle has ever docked at the orbiting outpost.

Astronauts on the space station plan to enter the capsule Saturday and take delivery of half a ton of food, water and clothing brought by the upstart space company that developed the spacecraft, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX.

The mission is considered the first test of NASA's plan to outsource space missions to privately funded companies now that the U.S. fleet of space shuttles has been retired. SpaceX aims to prove to NASA that its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are ready to take on the task of hauling cargo and eventually astronauts for the space agency.

"Today marks another critical step in the future of American spaceflight," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "Now that a U.S. company has proven its ability to resupply the space station, it opens a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and new job creation opportunities right here in the U.S."

The docking at 9:02 a.m. PDT on Friday was a milestone for SpaceX and may also mark a seismic shift for U.S. spaceflight, which for more than half a century has been the province of governments and large, entrenched aerospace firms.

On its own, SpaceX built its Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket that lifted it into orbit. By contrast, the overall design of NASA's previous space-going vehicles and their missions were tightly controlled by the government and contracted to aerospace giants.

At SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, company engineers have overseen the entire mission, which began Tuesday when the Falcon 9 lifted off in the predawn hours from Cape Canaveral, Fla. They monitor incoming data for anomalies, and if there are any, they can order the launch to be scrubbed or address the mission issues.

In a post-docking webcast on NASA TV, Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini commented on the change underway in aerospace.

"A contractor relatively independent of NASA designed on its own a spacecraft, completely built and tested and flew this spacecraft in a manner that has been remarkable," he said.

Shortly after docking, a smiling Elon Musk, SpaceX's 40-year-old billionaire founder and chief executive, appeared at the briefing from the company's sprawling rocket-making facility in Hawthorne.