SpaceX Crew Dragon successfully docks with ISS in first crew rotation mission

WASHINGTON - The SpaceX Crew Dragon docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday in its first crew rotation mission.

Crew Dragon automatically docked with the ISS at about 11:01 pm EST Monday (0401 GMT Tuesday), about 27 hours and a half after its launch from historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday.

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency were aboard the capsule named Resilience.

After confirming completion of hard capture at 11:13 pm EST Monday (0413 GMT Tuesday), NASA said the spacecraft with NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts aboard is officially attached to the ISS.

The crew will conduct science and maintenance during a six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, and will return to Earth in spring 2021. This is scheduled to be the longest human space mission launched from the United States, according to NASA.

The mission, dubbed Crew-1, is the first of six crewed missions NASA and SpaceX will fly as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.