Dragon supplies delivered to space station

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 26 (UPI) -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have boarded the unmanned Dragon spacecraft and began unloading supplies, NASA TV showed.

Hours after the Dragon docked with the space station, the astronauts opened the capsule's hatch and began taking delivery of 1,014 pounds of food, water and clothing, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Private space company SpaceX's Dragon capsule became the first commercial cargo vessel to visit the Space Station

"Like the smell of a brand new car," NASA astronaut Don Pettit said after going into the capsule.

Live coverage of the hatch opening began just after 3 a.m. Saturday on NASA TV and on the Web site of SpaceX, officially named Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a company based in Hawthorne, Calif.

The delivery of the supplies was to show the space capsule could link up with the $100 billion space station's on-board computer, the Times said.

The Dragon Friday became the first privately built and operated space capsule to dock with the space station.

The Times said SpaceX has received nearly $400 million in seed money from NASA. The company has a $1.6 billion contract with the agency to haul cargo in a dozen flights to the space station.