SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft with two Nasa astronauts on Sunday successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after a historic launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company confirmed the successful docking of Nasa astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley with the ISS, the orbiting laboratory. “Docking confirmed— Crew Dragon has arrived at the @space_station!” the California-headquartered company announced on Twitter.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) also took to Twitter to announce the docking.
“Docking confirmed! @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug officially docked to the @Space_Station at 10:16 am ET:” Nasa said in a tweet.
The docking took place 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center. The crew will be welcomed aboard the ISS, where they will become members of the Expedition 63 crew, which currently includes Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying Nasa astronauts Behnken and Hurley, lifted off at 3:22 pm EDT on Saturday atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center.