SpaceX Crew Dragon successfully docks at the International Space Station

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center with four astronauts aboard, has successfully docked at the International Space Station.

The spacecraft took 27 hours to get there after launch on Sunday night (EST).

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese space agency astronaut – will be greeted by a “welcome ceremony” once they get out of their spacecraft for the first time since mid-afternoon Sunday (US time).

They will join NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who are already aboard the ISS. They arrived last month on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Safe docking marks the end of the first leg of a historic mission for NASA and SpaceX, who have worked together for a decade to restore human spaceflight capability to the United States and ensure the multi-billion dollar ISS remains fully staffed.

Up to 13 astronauts were aboard at the same time in 2009. But that number has occasionally dropped to three, which leaves fewer people to help conduct experiments and help keep the space station well maintained.

This also marks the first fully operational manned mission for SpaceX, following a test mission in May that took NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, both test pilots, to the space station for a short stay.

The inclusion of Mr. Glover in this mission, called Crew-1, has its historical significance. Although more than a dozen black Americans have traveled into space since Guion Bluford became the first to do so in 1983, Mr. Glover will be the first to become a full-time crew member on the ISS. This also marks his first trip to space.

During a brief dispatch between mission control and the astronauts yesterday afternoon, mission commander Hopkins asked ground control operators if they could see Mr. Glover smiling “because he hasn’t stopped since we’ve been here.”

Although mission control had to work on some minors technical blocks during the night on the Crew Dragon autonomous spacecraft, yesterday the race seemed to go smoothly.

Since taking off from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday evening, the Crew Dragon spacecraft has slowly lifted its orbit and approached the space station.

Meanwhile, the astronauts were able to swap their spacesuits for more comfortable clothing and get some sleep. NASA has intentionally lengthened the time that Crew Dragon is flying free in orbit to allow the crew to sleep so that they are fully awake and alert when it comes time to dock with the ISS.

Crew-1 astronauts are expected to spend approximately six months aboard the ISS, where they will work on a variety of scientific experiments and conduct spacewalks to continue upgrades and repairs outside the space station.

Before returning home, they will be joined by another group of astronauts on a mission called Crew-2 which is expected to be launched in the spring of the United States.