On Saturday, NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken lifted off in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacefaring capsule. This marked the first time that a spacecraft built by a private company launched a crewed mission into orbit. This also marked the first crewed NASA launch since the Space Shuttle program was shuttered in 2011.
But that was not the end of the history-making. On Monday, spacecraft commander Hurley and joint operations commander Behnken docked the Crew Dragon at the ISS. At 1:02 p.m. Eastern, they became the first astronauts in history to board the ISS from a commercial craft.
The exact length of their stay aboard the ISS has not yet been determined, but the capsule was designed to be able to stay in orbit for a maximum of 110 days. Whenever Hurley and Behnken do depart from the ISS, the craft will autonomously return itself to Earth, splashing down off the Florida coast.