SpaceX
It was awesome and picture-perfect, as the 2 U.S. astronauts hitched their space capsule onto the International Space Station.
It went down Sunday AM Earth time … 19 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It’s the first time in the history of U.S. space exploration that astronauts were hurled into parts unknown by a rocket manufactured by a private company — in this case, Elon Musk‘s SpaceX.
NASA
A cam from the Space Station captured the docking procedure … check out the red, white and green lights that signify the progress as the Dragon capsule bellies up to its host.
The 2 astronauts — Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley — took over the controls during part of the maneuver. The actual docking was computer-driven.
The docking follows a picture-perfect launch Saturday afternoon. The docking indicated that the first portion of the test flight with crew aboard was successful.
The trip will be considered a complete success once the astronauts return to Earth in the near future, opening the way for more travel to the space station and orbit by astronauts and perhaps space tourists in the years to come.
The Space Station is 250 miles above the earth and travels at the incomprehensible speed of 17,500 MPH. NASA, which partnered with SpaceX, hasn’t decided how long the astronauts will stay up in space. It could be anywhere between a month and 3 months.