海角大神

SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk鈥檚 company.

With test pilots聽Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken聽poised to take over manual control if necessary, the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically, no assistance needed. The hatches swung open a few hours later, and the two Dragon riders floated into the orbiting lab and embraced the three station residents.

Unlike the SpaceX and NASA flight control rooms, where everyone was spaced well apart, there was no social distancing or masks needed in orbit since the new arrivals had been in quarantine for many weeks.

鈥淭he whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world,鈥� NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a call from Mission Control in Houston.

Mr. Hurley credited SpaceX and added, 鈥淚t's great to get the United States back in the crewed launch business.鈥�

It was the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft carried astronauts to the space station in its more than 20 years of existence. NASA considers this the opening volley in a business revolution encircling Earth and eventually stretching to the moon and Mars.

鈥淣ASA is not going to purchase, own, and operate rockets and capsules the way we used to," Mr. Bridenstine said. 鈥溾�漌e鈥檙e going to partner with commercial industry.鈥�

The docking occurred barely 19 hours after a聽SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off聽Saturday afternoon from Kennedy Space Center, the nation鈥檚 first astronaut launch to orbit from home soil in nearly a decade and drawing a Washington delegation led by President Donald Trump. NASA said peak viewership online hit 10 million.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic,聽thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges, and towns as SpaceX ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA. The achievement, years in the making, is expected to drive down launch costs so more people might be able to afford a ticket to space in the coming years.

Mr. Behnken told the welcoming committee at NASA's Johnson Space Center that the Dragon was 鈥渁 slick vehicle鈥� and said he was surprised at how rough the ride was on the latter part of ascent, compared with the space shuttle, which he and Mr. Hurley rode twice.

鈥淒ragon was huffing and puffing all the way into orbit,鈥� he said.

Two Texas members of Congress at Johnson for the docking 鈥� Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Brian Babin 鈥� said the flight offered inspiration and hope during a particularly tough time of protests and pandemic.

鈥淗aving it go off without a hitch was a tremendous blessing for our country,鈥� Mr. Babin told the astronauts.

Gleaming white in the sunlight, the Dragon was easily visible on NASA TV from a few miles away from the space station, its nose cone open and exposing its docking hook as well as a blinking light. Mr. Hurley and Mr. Behnken took over the controls and did a little piloting less than a couple hundred yards out as part of the test flight, before putting it back into automatic for the final approach.

Once on board the space station, Mr. Hurley said the聽capsule,聽newly named Endeavour after the retired shuttle, handled extremely well. He was the pilot on the last U.S. spaceship to visit the space station 鈥� the last shuttle flight, by Atlantis, in July 2011.

Restoring American launch capability nine years later, he noted, 鈥渋s just one effort that we can show for the ages in this dark time that we鈥檝e had over the past several months to kind of inspire, especially the young people in the United States, to reach for these lofty goals.鈥�

There was one small glitch: Mr. Hurley bumped his head entering the space station and frequently wiped his forehead during the welcoming ceremony.

NASA turned to private industry to pick up the slack following the shuttle fleet's retirement, hiring SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 for space station taxi services. Boeing's first astronaut flight isn't expected until next year.

Until Saturday, SpaceX had launched only space station supplies or satellites. The company's employees took to calling the astronauts 鈥渄ads鈥� to drive home the fact that two lives were at stake in this highly technical effort.

Clearly relieved, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted a big 鈥渨elcome home鈥� to the Dragon fliers 鈥� 鈥淎merica's two favorite dads.鈥�

NASA has yet to decide how long Mr. Hurley and Mr. Behnken will spend at the space station, somewhere between one and four months. While they鈥檙e there, they'll join NASA's Chris Cassidy and two Russian station residents in performing experiments and possibly spacewalks to install fresh station batteries.

While U.S. astronauts will continue to catch a ride on Russian Soyuz rockets, it will be through a barter system now that NASA's commercial crew program has finally taken flight. NASA had been shelling out tens of millions of dollars for every Soyuz seat.

In a show-and-tell earlier Sunday, the astronauts gave a quick tour of the Dragon鈥檚 sparkling clean insides, quite spacious for a capsule.

The blue sequined dinosaur accompanying them 鈥� their young sons鈥� toy, named Tremor 鈥� was also in good shape, Mr. Behnken assured viewers. Tremor was going to join Earthy, a plush globe delivered to the space station on last year鈥檚 test flight of a crew-less crew Dragon. Mr. Behnken said both toys would return to Earth with them at mission鈥檚 end.

An old-style capsule splashdown is planned.

After liftoff, Mr. Musk told reporters that the capsule鈥檚 return will be more dangerous in some ways than its launch. Even so, getting the two astronauts safely to orbit and then the space station had everyone breathing huge sighs of relief.

As always, Mr. Musk was looking ahead.

鈥淭his is hopefully the first step on a journey toward a civilization on Mars,鈥� he said Saturday evening.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.

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