SpaceX's new Dragon capsule successfully docked on the International Space Station on Sunday, NASA and SpaceX confirmed during a live broadcast of the mission.

"We can confirm hard capture is complete," NASA said.

The announcement was met with applause at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The docking began at 1051 GMT, more than 248 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, north of New Zealand -- and 27 hours after the capsule's launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Although the contact appeared slow, the ISS and the capsule were moving at a speed of over 27,000 kilometers per hour in orbit around the Earth.

On board the ISS, the crew -- American Anne McClain, Russian Oleg Kononenko, and Canadian David Saint-Jacques -- were scheduled to open the airlock at 1330 GMT.

The mission is a test launch with only a dummy on board the capsule ahead of a manned flight scheduled for later this year.

The Dragon capsule will remain on the ISS until Friday before detaching to splash down in the Atlantic. It will be slowed by four parachutes, in what is the one of the mission's riskiest stages.

The launch is a key step towards resuming manned space flights from US soil after an eight-year break.

After the shuttle program was shut down in July 2011 following a 30-year run, NASA began outsourcing the logistics of its space missions.

It pays Russia to get its people up to the ISS orbiting research facility at a cost of $82 million per head for a round trip.

In 2014, the US space agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing for them to take over this task.

previous report
SpaceX astronaut capsule successfully launched on ISS test mission
Cape Canaveral (AFP) March 2, 2019 - SpaceX celebrated the successful launch Saturday of a new astronaut capsule on a week-long round trip to the International Space Station -- a key step towards resuming manned space flights from US soil after an eight-year break.

This time around, the only occupant on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule was a dummy named Ripley -- but NASA plans to put two astronauts aboard in July, although that date could be delayed.

The new capsule blasted off aboard the Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX -- run by billionaire Elon Musk -- at 2:49 am (0749 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, lighting up the coastline.

The first and second stages separated without incident, placing Dragon in Earth's orbit 11 minutes after take-off.

Every successful stage of the mission -- whose planning suffered three-year delays -- triggered cheers at the firm's headquarters and at the Kennedy Space Center.

"I'm a little emotionally exhausted, because that was super stressful but it worked, so far," Musk told a late-night press conference an hour later.

"It's been 17 years, we still haven't launched anyone yet, but hopefully we will later this year."

The next tricky step for the capsule will be docking at the ISS on Sunday at around 1100 GMT, with a return to Earth scheduled for next Friday.

It is to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, and then return to Cape Canaveral.

- 'Confidence in the future' -

The mission aims to test the vessel's reliability and safety in real-life conditions.

Ripley -- nicknamed in honor of the character played by Sigourney Weaver in the "Alien" movies -- is fitted with monitors to test the forces that future astronauts will be subjected to on takeoff and when they return to the Earth's atmosphere and then land in the Atlantic, braked by giant parachutes.

The mission's successful start provided some immediate reassurance.

At the press conference, Musk asked the two NASA astronauts slated to fly in Dragon: "You guys think it's a good vehicle?"

They both nodded. "Seeing a success like this, that really gives us a lot confidence in the future," said one of them, Bob Behnken.

In another success, the rocket's first stage returned to Earth, landing on a platform 500 kilometers (310 miles) off the Florida coast in the Atlantic. It marks the 35th such recovery by SpaceX.

"Today represents a new era in space flight" said Jim Bridenstine, head of the US space agency who sees the launch as a step toward the privatization of low Earth orbit.

"As a country, we're looking forward to being one customer of many customers, in a robust commercial marketplace in low Earth orbit, so that we can drive down costs and increase access in ways that historically have not been possible," he said.

- Key NASA partner -

After the shuttle program was shut down in July 2011 following a 30-year run, NASA began outsourcing the logistics of its space missions.

It pays Russia to get its people up to the ISS orbiting research facility at a cost of $82 million per head for a round trip.

In 2014, the US space agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing for them to take over this task.

But the program has suffered delays as safety requirements are much more stringent for manned flights than for unmanned missions to deploy satellites.

Boeing also received a contract in 2014 to develop a space vessel, the Starliner. It will not be tested until April, in a mission similar to SpaceX's.

NASA did not want to rely on just one single vehicle, in case of accidents.

For SpaceX, sending an astronaut into orbit would be a culmination of years of hard work and high-risk investment.

In less than a decade, it has become a key partner for NASA, in addition to dominating the market for private satellite launches.

Its Falcon 9 rockets have resupplied the space station 15 times in seven years, though one of them blew up in 2015.

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SpaceX astronaut capsule launched on ISS Demo-1 mission
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Mar 02, 2019
The demonstration mission of SpaceX's new Crew Dragon capsule successfully docked Sunday on the International Space Station, passing a key test before it can begin taking US astronauts into space. The docking of the capsule, which has only a dummy on board, was concluded at 1051 GMT, nearly 250 miles (400 kilometers) over the surface of the Earth, NASA and SpaceX confirmed during a live broadcast of the mission. A little over two hours later, the space station's three crew members - American Anne McClain, Canadian David Saint-Jacques and Russian Oleg Kononenko - opened the hatch of the space capsule and, for the first time, penetrated its interior in space. ... read more