New SpaceX capsule docks autonomously at International Space Station
No one was aboard the Dragon capsule launched Saturday on its first test flight, only an instrumented dummy. But that quickly changed once the hatch swung open and the space station astronauts floated inside.
If the six-day demo goes well, SpaceX could launch two astronauts this summer under NASA's commercial crew program. Both astronauts -- Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken -- were at SpaceX Mission Control in Southern California, observing all the action. They rushed there from Florida after watching the Dragon rocket into orbit early Saturday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Behnken said that's the way it should work when he and Hurley are on board; they may push a button or two and will have the ability to intervene, if necessary. The capsule's lone passenger for launch -- a mannequin wearing a white SpaceX spacesuit -- remained strapped into its seat as the station's U.S., Canadian and Russian crew removed supplies. The test dummy -- or Smarty as SpaceX likes to call it, given all the instrumentation -- is named Ripley after the lead character in the science-fiction "Alien" films.
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