The
SpaceX Dragon Endeavour capsule docked with the International Space Station,
ending its 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab. (NASA TV)
SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft crewed by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken has docked
with the International Space Station on its historic Demo-2 mission.
The spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy
Space Center Saturday. The mission is the first time that astronauts have
launched from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011.
The mission is also the first time a private
company, rather than a national government, has sent astronauts into
orbit.
The spacecraft made its 'soft capture' docking with
the International Space Station at 10:16 am ET after an almost 19-hour
journey to the orbiting space lab. The space station was 262 statute miles
above the border of northern China and Mongolia when the docking occurred.
"Hard capture" docking was complete at 10:28 am ET with the full
docking sequence complete two minutes later.
Happy to be aboard!" said Hurley when the capsule
was docked.
The hatch is expected to open around 12:45 pm ET, with a
welcome ceremony at 1:15 pm ET.
"Welcome
home @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug! America’s two favorite dads
in space have docked to the @Space_Station," tweeted NASA
Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who is chairman of
the National Space Council, were at Kennedy Space Center to watch Hurley and
Behnken lift off from storied launch pad 39A, which was also used for
the Apollo and space shuttle programs.
On Saturday evening Hurley announced that the spacecraft,
previously known as capsule 206, has been renamed Endeavour, continuing the
tradition of astronauts naming their capsules.
“We would like to welcome you aboard capsule Endeavour,”
he said. “We chose Endeavour for a few reasons – one, because of the incredible
Endeavour NASA, SpaceX and the United States has been on since the end of the
shuttle program in 2011. The other reason we named it Endeavour is little more
personal – Bob and I, we both had our first flight on Shuttle Endeavour and it
just meant to much to us to carry on that name.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
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