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Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space station astronauts have captured the Dragon.

The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station this morning, , making history as the first commercial delivery truck in orbit.

Astronauts Donald Pettit and Andre Kuipers used the space station’s robot arm to snare the Dragon after a few hours of extra maneuvering.

NASA is handing over routine orbital flights to private business so it can concentrate on grander destinations like asteroids and Mars. The California-based SpaceX company is leading the charge under billionaire Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal.

Dragon will remain at the space station for nearly a week. It will be freed next Thursday to return to Earth with a load of experiments.

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