SpaceX has once again made history Astronauts onboard the Dragon successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday morning. NASA confirmed the docking within the hour on Twitter, writing: "Docking confirmed! @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug officially docked to the @Space_Station at 10:16am ET" They also shared a video of the successful docking: [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1267098121194090498]] SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral at 03:22PM ET, taking US astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken on the 19-hour journey to the International Space Station. It was the first time US astronauts have taken off from US soil since 2011. Yesterday's historic moment marked the first time that a private company has sent astronauts into space, per the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21273591/spacex-launch-live-blog-crew-dragon-news-updates">Verge</a>. SpaceX was established back in 2002 by Musk with the original goal of reducing the costs of space travel and eventually allowing for the human colonization of Mars, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/science/elon-musk-spacex-mars-exploration.html">New York Times</a> reports. Per Space.com, Elon Musk said at a press conference following the launch: <blockquote>"I'm really quite overcome with emotion on this day, so it's kind of hard to talk, frankly. It's been 18 years working towards this goal, so it's hard to believe that it's happened."</blockquote> <img class="wp-image-12598256 size-full" src="https://img.vt.co/2020/05/ede91a17-space-1.jpg" alt="Two astronauts." width="760" height="522" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: PA Images]] One of the ways that the company is enabling for more environmentally friendly space travel, <a href="https://www.space.com/space-starlink-satellites-launch-rocket-landing-success-april-2020.html">Space.com</a> reports, is through its reuse of the two pieces that make up SpaceX fairings. They are jettisoned, and this means that they can be used again instead of being discarded into the ocean as has previously been done. Musk's plan to send a private rocket into space has been heavily documented, and at the start of 2018, the tech entrepreneur <a href="https://vt.co/sci-tech/space/elon-musk-reveals-message-aliens-left-space-x-rocket-perfect">revealed the message to aliens he has written on a SpaceX rocket</a>. This comes after SpaceX's Starship prototype exploded during a test run in Boca Chica, Texas, and the entire event was broadcast on a live-stream on the NASA Spaceflight website on Friday. You can see the dramatic footage from Friday below: [[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/TTWOPgqZ-Q0L14jDU.mp4||TTWOPgqZ]] Thankfully, there were no injuries as a result of the explosion, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/29/spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-explodes-test">Guardian</a> reports, and it didn't affect the launch of Falcon 9.

SpaceX's Dragon makes history as it docks to the International Space Station with two astronauts inside

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