SpaceX Dragon reaches International Space Station, completing the first part of historic NASA mission
May 31, 2020
Florida [USA], May 31 : SpaceX Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, hours after it took off from Florida, completing the first part of a historic NASA mission.
The Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the orbiting laboratory at 10:16 am (local time), a few minutes earlier than planned.
The Crew Dragon capsule carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, now named "Endeavour," made significant progress over Saturday night toward the International Space Station, reported The Washington Post.
The spacecraft is the first to take the American astronauts to orbit from American soil in nearly a decade. The mission marks the first flight of NASA crews from the US soil since 2011 and the first launch of a rocket owned by SpaceX, the commercial space company founded by Elon Musk.
.@AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug are so close to the @Space_Station that you can see the station's shadow on @SpaceX's Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. Watch their journey: https://t.co/bXCGg5kzBB pic.twitter.com/T8xPVEss4T
-- NASA (@NASA) May 31, 2020
On Wednesday, the planned launch was called off due to bad weather.
Behnken is the joint operations commander for the Demo-2 mission, responsible for activities such as rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as activities while the spacecraft is docked to the space station. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000 and has completed two space shuttle flights.
Hurley the spacecraft commander for the mission, responsible for activities such as launch, landing and recovery, was selected as an astronaut in 2000 and has completed two spaceflights.
