SpaceX's new 'Endeavour' spaceship just made history by docking to the International Space Station with 2 NASA astronauts inside

On Sunday morning, the astronauts caught up to the International Space Station inside their Endeavour spaceship their new name for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and docked it there.
The docking marks a big milestone in the Demo-2 mission, as it's called; Behnken and Hurley can now stay and work in space for up to 110 days before having to return home.
The docking is also the first time a crewed private spaceship has linked up to the $150 billion orbiting laboratory.
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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have once again helped make history for SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk , by docking to a football field-size laboratory in space.

After careening into space on Saturday atop a Falcon 9 rocket, the astronauts' spaceship a Crew Dragon capsule they later named "Endeavour," after their first space shuttle missions disconnected from its launcher and entered orbit. The vehicle then completed a series of its own engine burns to catch up to the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits at about 250 miles above the planet's surface while traveling 17,500 mph.

On Sunday morning, Behnken and Hurley caught up to their target. After flying below the $150 billion orbiting laboratory, the ship pulled up to about 220 meters in front of the space station. The two men then tested out the ship's maneuvering by manually controlling it through on-board touchscreens while connected to NASA's Johnson Space Center and SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

"It flew just about like the [simulator], so my congratulations to the folks in Hawthorne. It flew really well, very really crisp," Hurley said during a live webcast , adding that its handling was "a little sloppier" in an up-down direction, as expected.

nasa astronauts doug hurley bob behnken spacex crew dragon spaceship spacesuits flight suits helmets commercial crew program ccp 48727269181_fe448ba330_o SpaceX

Behnken and Hurley then turned Endeavour's autopilot back on, and the spacecraft ever-so-carefully flew itself toward a docking port called Node 2, located at the forward end of the space station.

The ship's docking mechanism then connected to the node at 10:16 a.m. ET while flying over northern China and Mongolia. Latches on the ship then began tightly sealing Endeavour to the ISS.

spacex crew dragon spaceship docking international space station iss may 31 2020 SpaceX/NASA via YouTube

SpaceX's docking represents the first one of a privately developed spaceship with a crew on board.

Most immediately, though, it means Behnken and Hurley have a home in space for roughly the next 110 days. When their stay ends, the astronauts will climb back inside Endeavour, disembark from the ISS, and careen back to Earth .

The crews of Endeavour and the ISS are now working to pressurize the hatches, opening according to NASA TV . If all goes according to plan, the astronauts in Crew Dragon and the Expedition 63 crew of the ISS will open the hatches around 12:45 p.m. ET, then perform a greeting ceremony around 1:15 p.m. ET. However, the procedure was running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

We'll update this story as the docking progresses.

This is a developing story.

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