SpaceX Crew Dragon docks with ISS following successful launch

Designed to carry up to four crew members once fully operational, this first mission saw the vehicle loaded with a sensor-laden mannequin named Ripley and around 180kg of supplies. The Crew Dragon launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, lifting off at 2.49am local time on Saturday. Just over 24 hours later it rendezvoused with the ISS, docking autonomously using new sensor systems, new propulsion systems and the new international docking mechanism to attach to the station’s Harmony module forward port.

This marked the first time since the cessation of the Space Shuttle programme in 2011 that a US-made spacecraft designed for crew had docked with the ISS, and the first time ever that a privately developed crew vehicle had done so. If the mission, named Demo-1, continues to be a success, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken could travel to the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon as early as July of this year.