Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule was captured by an astronaut, Donald Pettit, operating the International Space Station`s robot arm, Friday morning.
The two vessels rendezvous while flying above Australia.
"Capture is confirmed," said NASA`s mission control commentator, Josh Byerly, at 9:56am (1356 GMT).
"It looks like we got us a Dragon by the tail," said Pettit.
This is the first time a private company has launched a vessel to the space station.
The capsule had to go through a series of demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control and it came within 1½ miles of the space station in a practice rendezvous on Thursday.
The Dragon is designed to safely re-enter the atmosphere. The space station`s crew will release the Dragon next Thursday after filling it with science experiments and equipment.
SpaceX is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans from their homeland.
The space station has been relying on Russian, Japanese and European cargo ships ever since the NASA’s shuttles retired.
(With Agency inputs)
