SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft with two astronauts successfully docks at ISS

Washington: SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft with two NASA astronauts on Sunday successfully docked with the International Space Station after a historic launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the dawn of a new age in commercial space travel. Elon Musk’s SpaceX company confirmed the successful docking of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (49) and Doug Hurley (53) with the ISS, the orbiting laboratory.
“Docking confirmed – Crew Dragon has arrived at the @space_station!” the California-headquartered company announced on Twitter. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is an independent agency for space research, aeronautics and related programmes in the US, also took to Twitter to announce the docking.
“Docking confirmed! @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug officially docked to the @Space_Station at 10:16am ET:” NASA said in a tweet. The docking took place 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center. The crew will be welcomed aboard the ISS, where they will become members of the Expedition 63 crew, which currently includes NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy. Saturday’s liftoff also assumes significance as it marks the launch of humans into orbit from US soil for the first time in nearly a decade. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Behnken and Hurley, lifted off at 3:22 pm EDT Saturday atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. With the liftoff, SpaceX became the first private company to launch people into the orbit, a feat achieved previously by only three governments: the US, Russia and China. The successful launch, which was postponed early this week due to inclement weather, gave Americans something to cheer about as in the last three months they have lost over 100,000 of their countrymen due to the coronavirus. (PTI)