CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the worlds first commercial supply ship.

NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, the first one inside the docked capsule, said the Dragon looks as if it carries about as much cargo as his pickup truck back home in Houston. It has the smell of a new car, he added.

I spent quite a bit of time poking around in here this morning, just looking at the engineering and the layout, and Im very pleased, Pettit said from the compartment.

To protect against possible debris, Pettit wore goggles, a mask and a cavers light as he slid open the hatch of the newest addition to the international space station. The complex sailed 250 miles above the Tasman Sea, just west of New Zealand, as he and his crew mates made their entrance. The atmosphere was clean; no dirt or other particles were floating around.

This event isnt just a simple door opening between two spacecraft it opens the door to a future in which U.S. industry can and will deliver huge benefits for U.S. space exploration, the Space Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group, said in a statement.

California-based SpaceX is the first private company to send a vessel to the space station. Its run by Elon Musk, a billionaire who helped create PayPal and founded the electric car company Tesla Motors.

Now that the space shuttles are retired, NASA is handing over orbital delivery work to U.S. business in order to focus on bigger objectives, such as getting astronauts to asteroids and Mars. The space agency hopes astronaut ferry trips will follow soon; SpaceX contends its Dragons could be carrying space station astronauts up and back within three or four years.

Flight controllers were ecstatic to be at the cusp of this new commercial era.

Its great to see you guys inside Dragon. It looks great, Mission Control radioed.

The six space station residents have until the middle of next week to unload Dragons groceries and refill the capsule with science experiments and equipment for return to Earth. Unlike all the other cargo ships that fly to the orbiting lab, the Dragon is designed for safe reentry. It will be freed on Thursday and aim for a Pacific splashdown.

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Space station astronauts enter the Dragon

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 26 (UPI) -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have boarded the unmanned Dragon spacecraft and began unloading supplies, NASA TV showed.

Hours after the Dragon docked with the space station, the astronauts opened the capsule's hatch and began taking delivery of 1,014 pounds of food, water and clothing, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Private space company SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first commercial cargo vessel to visit the Space Station

"Like the smell of a brand new car," NASA astronaut Don Pettit said after going into the capsule.

Live coverage of the hatch opening began just after 3 a.m. Saturday on NASA TV and on the Web site of SpaceX, officially named Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a company based in Hawthorne, Calif.

The delivery of the supplies was to show the space capsule could link up with the $100 billion space station's on-board computer, the Times said.

The Dragon Friday became the first privately built and operated space capsule to dock with the space station.

The Times said SpaceX has received nearly $400 million in seed money from NASA. The company has a $1.6 billion contract with the agency to haul cargo in a dozen flights to the space station.

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Dragon supplies delivered to space station

International Space Station flight engineer Donald Pettit inspects the seal around the hatch of the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft after the opening of the module. (NASA TV, via Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, fla. Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the world's first commercial supply ship.

NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, the first one inside the docked capsule, said the Dragon looks like it carries about as much cargo as his pickup back home in Houston. It has the smell of a brand new car, he added.

"I spent quite a bit of time poking around in here this morning, just looking at the engineering and the layout, and I'm very pleased," Pettit said from the brilliant white compartment.

To protect against possible debris, Pettit wore goggles, a mask and a caver's light as he slid open the hatch of the newest addition to the international space station. The complex sailed 250 miles above the Tasman Sea, just west of New Zealand, as he and his crewmates made their grand entrance. The atmosphere was clean; no dirt or other particles were floating around.

The Dragon contains 1,000 pounds of food, clothes, batteries and other provisions. It will bring back 1,400 pounds' worth of gear.

"This event isn't just a simple door opening between two spacecraft it opens the door to a future in which U.S. industry can and will deliver huge benefits for U.S. space exploration," the Space Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group, said in a statement.

The California-based SpaceX formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is the first private company to send a vessel to the space station.

It's run by Elon Musk, a billionaire who helped create PayPal and founded the electric car company Tesla Motors.

Now that the space shuttles are retired, NASA is handing over orbital delivery work to American business to focus on bigger and better objectives, such as getting astronauts to asteroids and Mars.

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Astronauts check out commercial craft docked at space station

Rather than kick their feet up this Memorial Day weekend, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be unloading cargo from the first private spacecraft ever to visit the orbiting lab.

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Astronauts to Spend Memorial Day Unpacking Private Space Capsule

"Like the smell of a brand-new car" were the words of International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit on Saturday after he carefully opened the hatch and entered the Dragon capsule for his first glimpse inside.

Dragon connected with the station Friday, making history as the first private capsule to reach the orbiting spacecraft.

Pettit opened the hatch at 5:53 a.m. ET with Russian cosmonaut and station commander Oleg Kononenko by his side. The two men, wearing T-shirts, khaki shorts, goggles and masks gave the thumbs up to the camera after they floated inside.

Pettit later told reporters in a briefing from space that the interior is roomier than the Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him to the space station. He said "it looks like it carries about as much cargo as I could put in my pickup truck."

Dragon delivered more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, including food, clothing, computer equipment and supplies for science experiments.

After the crew unloads that cargo, they will reload the capsule with experiments and cargo for its return trip to Earth. Dragon is scheduled to splash into the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of California on May 31, according to NASA.

Pettit said the crew has packed most of what its plan to send back to Earth, which includes everything from trash to scientific research and experimental samples.

Dragon launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. NASA collaborated with SpaceX on every part of the mission and gave final authorization for the flight.

Dragon reached the station Friday and was "captured" by the station's robotic arm just before 10 a.m. ET. Over the next two hours, the crew maneuvered the arm to bring the capsule in to berth and attach it to the station.

The mission, hailed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden as a step toward a new future of private innovation in the space industry, comes as government funding of the space program decreases.

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Space Station Crew: Dragon Capsule has 'New Car Smell'

25-05-2012 10:27 HD video of the successful grapple of the SpaceX Dragon capsule by the International Space Station (ISS). Capture took place shortly after 11am EST on May 25th, 2012 (5/25/2012). SpaceX is the first private organization to successfully launch and connect a vehicle to the International Space Station. HD video captured from the live webcast of the event from NASA TV.

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International Space Station (ISS) Grapples SpaceX Dragon Capsule (5/25/2012, May 25th) HD - Video

25-05-2012 09:36 Space station astronauts have captured the Dragon. The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, making history as the first commercial delivery truck in orbit. (May 25)

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Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station - Video

Space station nabs 'Dragon by the tail'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- "Like the smell of a brand-new car" were the words of International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit on Saturday after he carefully opened the hatch and entered the Dragon capsule for his first glimpse inside.

Dragon connected with the station Friday, making history as the first private capsule to reach the orbiting spacecraft.

Pettit opened the hatch at 5:53 a.m. ET with Russian cosmonaut and station commander Oleg Kononenko by his side. The two men, wearing T-shirts, khaki shorts, goggles and masks gave the thumbs up to the camera after they floated inside.

The initial inspection went smoothly and ahead of schedule and the interior looked good, according to SpaceX, the private company that built and operates the Dragon.

Pettit later told reporters in a briefing from space that the interior is roomier than the Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him to the space station. He said "it looks like it carries about as much cargo as I could put in my pickup truck."

Ashes of 'Star Trek' actor on private rocket

Dragon delivered more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, including food, clothing, computer equipment and supplies for science experiments.

After the crew unloads that cargo, they will reload the capsule with experiments and cargo for its return trip to Earth. Dragon is scheduled to splash into the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of California on May 31, according to NASA.

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Space crew enters Dragon capsule

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station opened the door on the lab's first commercial resupply craft Saturday, accessing more than 1,000 pounds of food, clothing and experiments stowed inside.

Astronauts Don Pettit, Andre Kuipers and Joe Acaba speak to reporters from inside the Dragon spacecraft. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now But one of the most vital functions of the privately-owned cargo ship - its ability to safely return space station equipment to Earth - is yet to be demonstrated.

The space station's Expedition 31 crew opened Dragon's hatch Saturday at 5:53 a.m. EDT (0953 GMT), and the astronauts plan to spend 25 hours removing the craft's supply cache and installing equipment tagged for shipment back to Earth.

"I spent quite a bit of time poking around in here this morning just looking at the engineering and the layout, and I'm very pleased," said Don Pettit, a NASA flight engineer living aboard the space station. "It looks like it carries about as much cargo as I could put in my pickup truck."

Pettit was at the controls of the station's robotic arm Friday when it grappled Dragon after a cautious laser-guided rendezvous with the outpost.

Most of the crew's cargo transfer duties will not begin until Monday, according to Holly Ridings, NASA's lead space station flight director for the Dragon mission.

"We are going to give our crew some time off," Ridings said. "They've been working very hard over the last couple of days, so we're going to give them some time off over the weekend. Then Monday and Tuesday are very big cargo days on the space station."

Pettit, Andre Kuipers, and Joe Acaba will rotate time removing and adding cargo in the Dragon spacecraft.

None of Dragon's payloads are deemed essential for the space station by NASA officials. The ongoing mission is a test flight to prove the Dragon spacecraft is ready for regular cargo deliveries to the complex, which could begin as soon as September.

Engineers packed the commercial spaceship with 1,146 pounds of equipment and supplies before Dragon's launch, taking advantage of the test mission to supplement cargo dispatched to the space station on other flights.

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Space station crew opens door to commercial spaceship

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the world's first commercial supply ship.

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Space station astronauts enter world's 1st commercial supply ship, the historic Dragon

Space station astronauts opened up the newly arrived SpaceX cargo ship early Saturday, kicking off a busy few days of work to unload the commercial spacecraft.

Running well ahead of schedule,the International Space Station's crew opened hatches between the Harmony module and the newly arrived SpaceX Dragon cargo ship early Saturday to kick off a busy few days of work to unload about a half ton of supplies and equipment.

Wearing goggles and filter masks to protect against any floating contaminants that might be present -- a routine precaution when visiting cargo craft arrive -- flight engineer Donald Pettit and Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko cracked open the hatch and floated inside at 5:53 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

Space station flight engineer Donald Pettit, left, and Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko, flashing a thumbs up, opened the hatch and floated into the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft for the first time early Saturday.

The Dragon cargo ship, making the second of two planned test flights, arrived at the space station Friday, four days after launch from Cape Canaveral. It is the first U.S. spacecraft to visit the International Space Station since the shuttle was retired last summer and the first commercially developed vehicle to attempt a linkup with the orbital lab complex.

"There was no sign of any kind of FOD (foreign object debris) floating around in the atmosphere inside," Pettit radioed mission control in Houston a few minutes after completing an initial inspection. "It kind of reminds me of the cargo capability that I could put in the back of my pickup truck. And the smell inside smells like a brand new car."

SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract to launch at least 12 Dragon missions to the space station to deliver some 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. Another company, Orbital Sciences, holds a $1.9 billion contract for eight missions using that company's Cygnus spacecraft, scheduled for its first test flight later this year.

For its space station test flight, the Dragon carried a relatively light load of lower-priority items, including 674 pounds of food and crew provisions; 46 pounds of science hardware and equipment; 271 pounds of cargo bags needed for future flights; and 22 pounds of computer equipment. For routine space station delivery missions, the spacecraft will be able to carry six-and-a-half tons of pressurized and unpressurized cargo.

The station fliers will have less than a week to unload the Dragon before the always changing angle between the sun and the space station's orbit results in higher-than-allowable temperatures. The Dragon spacecraft will be detached from the station May 31.

Unlike Russian, Japanese, and European Space Agency cargo craft, the SpaceX Dragon is equipped with a heat shield and parachutes for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of California. Since the shuttle's retirement, NASA has not had a way to get experiment samples, broken equipment, and other gear back to Earth. The Dragon spacecraft will restore that lost capability.

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Station astronauts enjoy 'new car smell' of SpaceX cargo craft

Space station nabs 'Dragon by the tail'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- "Like the smell of a brand-new car" were the words of International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit on Saturday after he carefully opened the hatch and entered the Dragon capsule for his first glimpse inside.

Dragon connected with the station Friday, making history as the first private capsule to reach the orbiting spacecraft.

Pettit opened the hatch at 5:53 a.m. ET with Russian cosmonaut and station commander Oleg Kononenko by his side. The two men, wearing T-shirts, khaki shorts, goggles and masks gave the thumbs up to the camera after they floated inside.

The initial inspection went smoothly and ahead of schedule and the interior looked good, according to SpaceX, the private company that built and operates the Dragon.

Pettit later told reporters in a briefing from space that the interior is roomier than the Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him to the space station. He said "it looks like it carries about as much cargo as I could put in my pickup truck."

Ashes of 'Star Trek' actor on private rocket

Dragon delivered more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, including food, clothing, computer equipment and supplies for science experiments.

After the crew unloads that cargo, they will reload the capsule with experiments and cargo for its return trip to Earth. Dragon is scheduled to splash into the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of California on May 31, according to NASA.

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'New car smell' as space station crew enters Dragon capsule

The crew of the International Space Station got its first look at the inside of its newest visitor SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship Saturday morning. For the next several years it'll be carrying cargo and astronauts to the space station.

The crew of the International Space Station got its first look at the inside of its newest visitor Space Exploration Technologies Corporation's Dragon cargo ship Saturday morning and pronounced it a keeper.

The craft made aerospace history Friday by becoming the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with another spacecraft on orbit.

I spent quite a bit of time poking around in here this morning looking at the engineering and the layout, and I'm very pleased, observes Don Petitt, a space station flight engineer and the crew member who guided the station's robotic arm as it grappled the craft for docking Friday morning.

RECOMMENDED:Beyond SpaceX: Five companies seeking to change space travel

SpaceX developed the Dragon to carry cargo and eventually crew, and based on his initial inspection of the craft's interior, riding in a human-rated Dragon is not going to be an issue, he said.

The mission began with a flawless launch May 22 from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The crew opened the hatch to the cargo craft at 5:53 Eastern Daylight Time Saturday.

This mission, which is slated to end with Dragon's return to Earth May 31, is a demonstration flight. It consists of a final set of tests the craft and its controllers must pass in order to begin delivering on a $1.6 billion contract SpaceX has with NASA to carry cargo to and from the station between now and 2015.

Speaking from within what would be the Dragon's relatively spacious cabin as a capsule for humans, Dr. Petitt acknowledged that in the midst of the grab-and-dock process Friday, he and his colleagues, Andre Kuipers, a European Space Agency crew member, and NASA's Joe Acaba didn't have much time to contemplate the mission's place in history.

With an additional 24 hours to think about it, however, Petitt likened the event to the Golden Spike that symbolized the final link joining eastbound and westbound segments of the first transcontinental railroad line. The spike was driven into that last wooden rail tie on May 10, 1869.

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SpaceX: Space Station crew likes what it sees in new transport vehicle

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.

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SpaceX capsule docks at International Space Station

For the first time in history, a commercial spaceship has journeyed to the International Space Station, carrying vital supplies to the astronauts. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

By Alan Boyle

The International Space Station's crew reached out today with a robotic arm to grab SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule and brought it in for the orbital outpost's first-ever hookup with a commercial spaceship.

It marks the station's first linkup with a U.S.-made spacecraft since last year's retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet, and potentially opens the way for dozens of commercial cargo shipments. If the long-range plan unfolds as NASA hopes, U.S. astronauts could be shuttled back and forth on the Dragon or similar spacecraft within just a few years.

"Today, this really is the beginning of a new era in commercial spaceflight," said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial crew and cargo program.

The hookup comes after Tuesday's successful launch of the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket, and represents the culmination of years of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars of spending by NASA and California-basedSpaceX, known more formally as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The company was founded a decade ago by dot-com billionaire Elon Musk, with aspirations of eventually sending humans to settle on Mars.

Musk said the technologies that were tested today will blaze a trail for those more ambitious trips to come. "This is a crucial step, and having achieved this step, itmakes the things in the future and the ultimate path toward humanity becoming a multiplanet species much, much more likely," he told reporters after the hookup. "The chances of that happening just went up dramatically, so people should be really excited about that."

But first things first: Today's operation marked the first full in-space test of the robotic Dragon spacecraft's procedure for approaching the station, and for that reason, every step along the way was carefully planned out and checked over the course of several hours.The first steps in the procedure were tested on Thursday, during a series of maneuvers that successfully brought the 14-foot-long, 12-foot-wide, gumdrop-shaped capsule within 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) of the $100 billion space station.

Today, a far more ambitious set of maneuvers brought the Dragon all the way to the station but the trip wasn't always easy.

Fixing the glitches The craft started out by taking up a position 250 meters (820 feet) below the station. From that vantage point, the Dragon was put through a series of maneuvers to test the station-to-spacecraft communication system. The space station's astronauts had the Dragon approach, then retreat, then approach, then hold its position.

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Space station grabs 'Dragon by the tail'

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

It marked the first time a business enterprise delivered a supply ship to the space station.

"There's so much that could have gone wrong and it went right," said an elated Elon Musk, the young, driven billionaire behind SpaceX.

"This really is, I think, going to be recognized as a significantly historical step forward in space travel and hopefully the first of many to come."

SpaceX still has to get its Dragon back next week with a load of science gear; the retro bell-shaped capsule is designed to splash down into the ocean, in the style of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. But Friday was the crucial step, Musk noted, and NASA agreed the next SpaceX mission could come as early as September.

After a three-day flight from Cape Canaveral, the Dragon closed in on the space station as two control centers NASA in Houston and SpaceX in Hawthorne, Calif. worked in tandem. A problem with the capsule laser-tracking system prompted SpaceX controllers to order a temporary retreat, but the problem quickly was resolved.

NASA astronaut Donald Pettit used the space station's 58-foot robot arm to snare the gleaming white Dragon as the two craft soared 250 miles above Australia, a day after a practice fly-by.

"Looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," Pettit announced once he locked onto Dragon's docking mechanism.

NASA's dressed-up controllers applauded. In contrast, their SpaceX counterparts including Musk lifted their arms in triumph and jumped out of their seats to exchange high fives.

The company's youthful-looking employees the average age is 30 were still in a frenzy when Musk took part in a televised news conference a couple hours later. They screamed with excitement as if it were a pep rally and chanted, "E-lon, E-lon, E-lon," as the 40-year-old Musk, wearing a black athletic jacket with the SpaceX logo, described the day's events.

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Dragon makes history with space station docking

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship and guided the privately owned craft into a docking berth on Friday, opening a new chapter in the U.S. space program.

The unmanned capsule was the first commercial spaceship to reach the orbital outpost.

"This really is the beginning of a new era in commercial spaceflight," said Alan Lindenmoyer, who manages NASA's commercial space transportation programs.

Using the station's 58-foot long (17.7-meter) robotic crane, NASA astronaut Don Pettit snared Dragon at 9:56 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft zoomed 250 miles over northwest Australia at 17,500 miles per hour.

"It looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," Pettit radioed to NASA Mission Control in Houston.

The capsule, built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is the first of two new commercial freighters NASA will use to ferry cargo to the $100 billion space station following the retirement of its space shuttles last year. Rather than building and flying its own ships to the station, the agency is hiring private companies to do the work.

The Dragon capsule is carrying about 1,200 pounds (544 kg) of food, water, clothing and supplies for the station crew, who were scheduled to open the hatch on Saturday.

The spaceship will be repacked with more than 1,300 pounds (590 kg) of equipment to come back to Earth and depart the station on May 31. It would splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California later that day.

"As a country we should be very proud," NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters after the station crew attached Dragon to the Harmony connecting node shortly after noon EDT.

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SpaceX capsule docks at space station, opens new era

SPACE The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday, captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.

It succeeded in making the first commercial delivery into the cosmos.

U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit used the space station's 58-foot robot arm to snare the gleaming white Dragon after a few hours of extra checks and maneuvers. The two vessels came together while sailing above Australia.

"Looks like we've got us a dragon by the tail," Pettit announced from 250 miles up once he locked onto Dragon's docking mechanism.

"You've made a lot of folks happy down here over in Hawthorne and right here in Houston," radioed NASA's Mission Control. "Great job guys."

NASA controllers clapped as their counterparts at SpaceX's control center in Hawthorne, Calif. -- including SpaceX's billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, of PayPal fame -- lifted their arms in triumph and jumped out of their seats to exchange high fives.

This is the first time a private company has attempted to send a vessel to the space station, an achievement previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies. And it's the first U.S. craft to visit the station since the final shuttle flight last July.

The astronauts wasted no time getting the Dragon capsule into position for actual docking to the space station. The unmanned capsule is carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies on this unprecedented test flight.

On Thursday, the capsule came within 1 1/2 miles of the space station in a practice fly-by. It returned to the neighborhood early Friday so Pettit, along with Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers could capture it with a robot arm. First, the capsule went through a series of stop-and-go demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.

NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon's imaging systems as the capsule drew ever closer to the space station, putting the entire operation slightly behind schedule. At one point, SpaceX controllers ordered a retreat because of a problem with on-board tracking sensors.

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SpaceX Dragon capsule arrives at space station

The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule approached the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday after sailing through a practice rendezvous the day before.

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Dragon capsule on course for space station arrival

The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule made a historic arrival at the International Space Station on Friday, captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.

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Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st