Dragon is the first commercial vessel to visit the space station. It is also the first American ship to go to the orbiting laboratory since the US space agency NASA retired its shuttles last year.
US astronaut Don Petit was inside the ISS at the controls of the Canadarm2. He reached out with the robotic appendage and grabbed the Dragon capsule at 13:56 GMT.
The capture was met by applause from controllers, at the NASA centre and at the SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne, California, where Dragon‘s flight is also being overseen. The ISS crew will go inside the ship on Saturday to unload its stores.
According to NASA officials, the attachment of Dragon to the platform marks a significant milestone in the history of human spaceflight. Traditionally, this field of endeavor has been the preserve of government-owned and operated vehicles.
However, the US space agency is looking to save money that it can then re-invest in some of its other programs far beyond Earth, at asteroids and at Mars. It believes this can be achieved by contracting out the routine tasks in low-Earth orbit to the private sector.
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