Historic Spacex Flight: Two astronauts of Nasa dock with ISS
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying two NASA astronauts docked with the International Space Station.
"Soft capture," the moment when the spacecraft makes first contact and latching with the target vehicle, occurred at 14:22 GMT.
Two veteran Nasa astronauts were headed for the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday after Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first commercial company to launch a rocket carrying humans into orbit, ushering in a new era in space travel.
SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard blasted off flawlessly in a cloud of bright orange flames and smoke from Florida's Kennedy Space Center for a 19-hour voyage to the space station.
"Let's light this candle," Hurley, the mission commander, told SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California, before liftoff at 3:22 pm (1922 GMT) from Nasa's storied Launch Pad 39A.
The SpaceX launch is the first of American astronauts from US soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011 and the first crewed flight ever by a private company.
"I'm really quite overcome with emotion," Musk said. "It's been 18 years working towards this goal.
"This is hopefully the first step on a journey towards civilization on Mars," the SpaceX founder said.
Russia's space agency congratulated the SpaceX company over its successful launch of the manned rocket.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said it was a "great day" for Nasa and SpaceX and an "important milestone for the nation."
"We're not celebrating yet," Bridenstine cautioned. "We will celebrate when they're home safely."
In a brief interview from space, Hurley said that in keeping with the tradition of having astronauts name their spacecraft, he and Behnken had named the Crew Dragon capsule "Endeavour" after the retired space shuttle on which they both flew.
Behnken said the SpaceX capsule is a "lot different than its namesake" in that "it has touch display screens."
The mission, dubbed "Demo-2," ends a government monopoly on space flight and is the final test flight before Nasa certifies SpaceX's capsule for regular crewed missions.
Behnken, 49, and Hurley, 53, former military test pilots who joined Nasa in 2000, were scheduled to dock with the space station at 10:29 am yesterday.
They will join US astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the ISS.
The mission comes amid the coronavirus crisis and protests in multiple US cities over the death of a black man in Minneapolis while he was being arrested by a white police officer.
President Donald Trump flew to Florida to watch the launch and delivered remarks to Nasa and SpaceX employees on what he called a "special day."
Trump praised Musk and said the launch "makes clear the commercial space industry is the future."
He also repeated his vow to send American astronauts back to the Moon in 2024 and eventually to Mars.
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