SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully attached to the International Space Station early Thursday, a day after aborting its first attempt.
NASA confirmed on its TV service that the capsule, carrying nearly 5,500 pounds of supplies and research materials, was captured by astronauts operating the station's robotic arm at 5:44 a.m. EST.
SpaceX, which is based in Hawthorne, Calif., and whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp., launched the capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday.
The Dragon began approaching the space station early Wednesday but automatically aborted the docking procedure when computers on board the capsule detected an incorrect value in its GPS equipment, leaving the computers unsure about the craft's position. The capsule was then sent on a flight around the station and set to make another attempt Thursday.
In addition to supplies, the Dragon holds several research experiments that are difficult to carry out from Earth, including one that will grow biological proteins in crystals and one that will look at tissue regeneration.
The capsule is to spend about four weeks attached to the station before returning to Earth, according to NASA.