Astronauts arrive at the space station

SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday (May 31, 2020), following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk’s company. With test pilots Dough Hurley and Bob Behnken to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed. The linkup occurred 262 miles above the China-Mongolia border. It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the orbiting lab in its nearly 20 years. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and mars. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy greeted the incoming crew by ringing the ship’s bell aboard the ship station. The docking occurred a little early, barely 19 hours after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Saturday (May 30, 2020) afternoon from Kennedy Space Center. NASA has yet to decide how long Hurley and Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months. While they are there, the Dragon test pilots will join NASA’s Cassidy and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to install fresh station batteries. After liftoff, Musk told reporters that the capsule’s return will be more dangerous in some ways that its launch. This is hopefully the first step on a journey towards a civilization on mars.