Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo ship on Friday, the first privately owned vehicle to reach the orbital outpost.

Using the station's 58-foot long (17.7-meter) robotic crane, NASA astronaut Don Pettit snared Dragon at 9:56 a.m. EDT (1356GMT) as the two spacecraft soared 250 miles (400 km) over northwest Australia at 17,500 mph.