Dragon docks at ISS

WASHINGTON: SpaceX on Friday became the first commercial outfit to attach its own cargo capsule to the International Space Station, marking what experts have hailed as a new era for private spaceflight.
The California-based SpaceX, owned by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, has now reached the climax of its demonstration mission to become the first privately owned craft to restore US access to the space outpost.
With no humans on board, the capsule is delivering about a half ton of supplies and science experiments for the ISS, and aims to return a slightly larger load of gear to Earth on May 31.
“There was so much that could have gone wrong, and it went right,” Musk told reporters after the berthing was complete.
“It is just a fantastic day and I think a great day for the country and for the world,” he added.
“This is really going to be recognized as a significantly historical step forward in space travel, and hopefully the first of many to come.” The Dragon is toting 521 kg of goodies for the space lab, including food, supplies, computers, utilities and science experiments. It plans to return a 660-kg load to Earth.
The hatches are set to open on Saturday so that the unloading of the Dragon’s more than half ton of cargo can begin.
“It looks like we got us a Dragon by the tail,” said US astronaut Don Pettit, who was operating the Canadian-built robotic arm from the space station as it reached out and captured the unmanned SpaceX capsule at 9:56 a.m. (1356 GMT).
The two spacecraft were traveling about 402 km above northwest Australia at the time of the grab, NASA said.
A formal berthing brought the capsule closer to latch on at the station’s Harmony module at 12:02 p.m. (1602 GMT), NASA said. “I can’t tell you how proud we are to have been a part of this historic moment,” said ISS program manager Mike Suffredini, adding that the spacecraft “performed nearly flawlessly.”