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"We've Got a Dragon by the Tail"

At 9:56 AM EDT (1356 UTC), the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) successfully grappled the Dragon spacecraft. This is the first commercial spacecraft to reach the International Space Station. Additional manipulations are required to berth the Dragon to a docking port.

“Looks like we’ve got a Dragon by the tail,” station flight engineer Don Pettit said moments after grappling the craft over northwest Australia.

Opening of the ports and beginning to unpack the spacecraft will begin tomorrow, Saturday.

The spacecraft is to be loaded with about 1300 pounds of science experiments and other material and returned to Earth on 31 May. Dragon will land in the Pacific, several hundred miles off of Southern California.

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