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."

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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