A private spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Friday, a milestone in a new era of commercial space flight.

The docking happened just before 10 a.m. ET, almost two hours later than planned, when the station's robotic arm captured the unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

"Looks like we caught a Dragon by the tail," astronaut Don Pettit said after capturing the capsule with the robotic arm, according to NASA.

The Dragon capsule launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying food, clothing, 22 pounds of computer equipment, 46 pounds of supplies for science experiments, and other cargo.

NASA said it authorized the flight after Dragon successfully completed all tests in preparation for docking and the space station mission management team completed a thorough review of its progress.

Connecting to the space station required NASA's approval in a staged approach that SpaceX called "the most difficult aspects of the mission."

The mission, hailed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden as a step toward a new future of private innovation in the space industry, comes as government funding of the space program decreases in an era of fiscal austerity.

Dragon was carried into orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket. Dragon then orbited the Earth on Tuesday and Wednesday, "firing its thrusters to catch up to the space station," SpaceX said.

The space station crew plans to open Dragon's hatch Saturday, it said.

Under the mission plan, Dragon will remain attached to the space station for two weeks before it plummets back into the atmosphere and splashes into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, according to SpaceX.

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Space X craft makes historic connection with space station