Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley successfully disembarked the SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule and entered the International Space Station.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the space station at 10:16 a.m. ET Sunday morning after launching from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Saturday and traveling 19 hours.

After making initial contact with the ISS, Crew Dragon went through a series of steps to further mate the spacecraft with its port — including linking power and creating an air-locked seal — before first of two hatches were opened.

Behnken and Hurley are expected to remain on board the space station for one to three months.

On Sunday morning, the spacecraft made a careful approach to the space station and then made a "soft capture" — meaning Crew Dragon made its first physical contact with its docking port at the International Space Station.

Crew Dragon then made a "hard capture," which involved using 12 latches to create an air-locked seal between Behnken and Hurley's crew cabin and their entrance to the space station and linked up Crew Dragon's power supply to the ISS.

Compared to the high drama of the launch on Saturday, the docking may have seemed like a slow burn.

At one point, the webcast host mentioned that Crew Dragon was moving a fraction of a meter per second toward its destination. That, however, is only relatively speaking: Both the spacecraft and the space station were still whipping through orbit at more than 17,000 miles per hour (about 27,000 kilometers per hour).

But because they were traveling at similar speeds, cameras on board the station made it appear as if Crew Dragon was inching along.

Source: CNN