SpaceX releases stunning video of Crew Dragon spacecraft approaching ISS

SPACEX scored another win for the private space travel industry by successfully docking at the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission brought a four-person crew to the ISS for a planned expedition.

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The crew left Earth at around 4:00am this morning, traveling at 17,500 miles per hour in the acclaimed and reusable Falcon 9 rocket.

The launch was delayed from its original target date, robbing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk of seeing a launch on 4/20, the marijuana-themed holiday that the billionaire has an affinity for.

According to , it took the astronauts about 16 hours to get from the takeoff site at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the welcoming dock of the ISS.

While aboard, the crew will conduct "science experiments and technology demonstrations."

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One of the studies Crew-4 astronauts will delve into is searching for ways to in space for future use on a lunar or Martian colony.

After liftoff, the crew orbited the Earth about times before activating a final thruster burn to propel the ship to the ISS.

It's during this orbiting period that the Falcon 9 rocket from the Dragon capsule.

The Dragon module docked at the ISS fully autonomously.

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Once docked, the cabin pressurizes, the hatch opens and the astronauts come face to face with the seven astronauts currently aboard the ISS.

The Crew-4 astronauts are slated to stay aboard the ISS for six months - the standard mission duration according to .

Astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti and Kjell Lindgren are making their second trip to the ISS.

Cristoforetti was last in space in 2014 on a European Space Agency mission, and Lindgren last left Earth in 2015 as a flight engineer for Nasa.

Now, they've reached the ISS as agents of the SpaceX brand.

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Some are troubled by the privatization of space - Nasa had served as a political unifier between the right and left for many years during the Cold War.

But it is clear visionaries like Elon Musk have the gumption to globalize the space travel effort by way of the private sector.