"Like the smell of a brand-new car" were the words of International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit on Saturday after he carefully opened the hatch and entered the Dragon capsule for his first glimpse inside.

Dragon connected with the station Friday, making history as the first private capsule to reach the orbiting spacecraft.

Pettit opened the hatch at 5:53 a.m. ET with Russian cosmonaut and station commander Oleg Kononenko by his side. The two men, wearing T-shirts, khaki shorts, goggles and masks gave the thumbs up to the camera after they floated inside.

Pettit later told reporters in a briefing from space that the interior is roomier than the Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him to the space station. He said "it looks like it carries about as much cargo as I could put in my pickup truck."

Dragon delivered more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, including food, clothing, computer equipment and supplies for science experiments.

After the crew unloads that cargo, they will reload the capsule with experiments and cargo for its return trip to Earth. Dragon is scheduled to splash into the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of California on May 31, according to NASA.

Pettit said the crew has packed most of what its plan to send back to Earth, which includes everything from trash to scientific research and experimental samples.

Dragon launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. NASA collaborated with SpaceX on every part of the mission and gave final authorization for the flight.

Dragon reached the station Friday and was "captured" by the station's robotic arm just before 10 a.m. ET. Over the next two hours, the crew maneuvered the arm to bring the capsule in to berth and attach it to the station.

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.

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Space Station Crew: Dragon Capsule has 'New Car Smell'