NASA astronauts dock at International Space Station

SPACE — Two NASA astronauts and their Space-X capsule made history Sunday morning when they docked at the International Space Station.

It’s the first time a privately built and owned spacecraft has delivered a crew to the orbiting lab. The capsule docked just 19 hours after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday. That was the first launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly a decade.

It’s not clear how long astronauts Bob Bhenken and Doug Hurley will stay at the station. Their return flight will end with an old-style capsule splashdown.

The private Space-X company is owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. He says the capsule’s return will be more dangerous in some ways than its launch.

Musk says he hopes this mission is the “First step on a journey toward a civilization on Mars.”