NASA and SpaceX confirmed on Sunday that SpaceX's new Dragon capsule had successfully docked with the International Space Station.
"We can confirm hard capture is complete", NASA said.
Under a contract with NASA, SpaceX developed Crew Dragon on the basis of the Dragon cargo ship that has been flying to the ISS since 2012. The company sent the spacecraft for its first unmanned test mission with a dummy, named Ripley, on board.
The United States has not launched astronauts from its soil since 2011 when the Space Shuttle programme ended. Currently, it is Russian-made Soyuz spaceships that send US astronauts to the ISS.
If successful, the mission launched on Saturday and the upcoming manned launch will allow NASA to certify the new spacecraft for regular flights to the space station.