Elon Musk: How he took SpaceX from an idea to the cusp of making history Astronaut Chris Cassidy, already on board the ISS after launching on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, welcomed the veteran astronauts by ringing a bell in the station's Unity module. The Navy tradition is used to welcome the arrival of new crew members. By 1:02 p.m., the pressure between Crew Dragon and the ISS had been equalized, allowing the astronauts to open the hatch and officially join Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. "We're just really glad to be on this magnificent complex," Hurley said during a post-arrival news conference. "This is just one effort that we can show for the ages in this dark time that we've had over the past several months." Asked during the conference what the 19-hour flight was like, Behnken said Falcon 9 liftoff's was surprisingly smooth. After separation, he said Crew Dragon was more "alive" than the comparatively massive space shuttle orbiter he last flew in 2010. "We were definitely driving and riding a dragon all the way up," Behnken said. "It was not quite the smooth ride the space shuttle was. A little bit more 'alive' is the best way I would describe it." For Hurley, the docking is familiar. In 2011, he was on the final space shuttle mission's rendezvous with the ISS, during which his team left behind an American flag to be retrieved by the next group of astronauts launched from U.S. soil. Now, nearly 10 years later, he'll capture the flag he left behind. The docking marks something of a halfway point for SpaceX. After a one-to-four-month stay on the station, Behnken and Hurley will reenter the capsule for departure and a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. If successful, it will pave the way for SpaceX to continue flying astronauts for NASA and other agencies. It has even secured interest from civilians like actor Tom Cruise for flights to low-Earth orbit.