Private spaceship in historic docking

Astronauts Donald Pettit and Andre Kuipers used the space station’s robot arm to snare the Dragon after a few hours of extra manoeuvring.

“Looks like we’ve got us a dragon by the tail,” US astronaut Pettit announced.

The two vessels came together while sailing above Australia at 17,500mph (28,160kph).

Controllers with NASA clapped as their counterparts at SpaceX’s control centre in California – including Mr Musk – jumped out of their seats to exchange high fives.

NASA is handing over routine orbital flights to private business so it can concentrate on grander destinations like asteroids and Mars.

The California-based SpaceX company is leading the charge under billionaire Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal and the Tesla electric car company.

SpaceX – officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp – is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans from US soil.

For now, NASA astronauts going to the space station must go on Russian rockets, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the US.

Once companies master supply runs, they hope to tackle astronaut ferry runs.

Mr Musk, who founded SpaceX a decade ago, said he can have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four years.

The unmanned Dragon capsule is carrying a half-ton of supplies.

It made a practice fly-by Thursday and returned early so Pettit, with Dutch astronaut Kuipers could capture it with the robot arm.

NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon’s imaging systems as the capsule drew closer to the space station, putting the operation slightly behind schedule.

The space agency insisted on proceeding cautiously. A collision at orbital speed could prove disastrous.