Space station’s crew enter the Dragon

UNITED STATES: Astronauts on the International Space Station have entered the Dragon – the world’s first commercial supply spaceship.

Early yesterday, crew from the space station slid open the hatch of the SpaceX capsule named Dragon, which made history with its arrival last Friday.

Nasa astronaut Donald Pettit was the first one into the ship. He and his crewmates have until the middle of next week to unload Dragon’s delivery, and to refill the capsule with equipment for its return journey to Earth.

California-based SpaceX is the first private company to send a vessel to the space station.

Nasa is turning over delivery work to private firms so it can focus on transporting astronauts to asteroids and Mars.