The BBC's Jonathan Amos explains how the SpaceX capsule will dock with the International Space Station
A robotic arm on the International Space Station has reached out to grab the visiting Dragon supply vessel.
The arm will shortly move the ship to a free berthing port on the underside of the orbiting platform.
Dragon has been built by the California firm SpaceX and is carrying half a tonne of food and other stores for the ISS astronauts.
It is the first time a private sector company has attempted to deliver freight to the station.
The high-flying laboratory's Canadarm2 is being controlled by US spaceman Don Petit.
He grabbed the capsule at 13:56 GMT (14:56 BST). "Houston, looks like we got us a Dragon by the tail," he radioed to Nasa mission Control in Texas.
The capture was met by applause from controllers, at the Nasa centre and at the SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne, California, where Dragon's flight is also being overseen.
Once berthed, the ISS crew can go inside the ship and unload its stores. That is likely to happen on Saturday.
The attachment of Dragon to the platform would mark a significant milestone in the history human spaceflight.
Traditionally this field of endeavour has been the preserve of government-owned and operated vehicles.
But the US space agency (Nasa) is is looking to save money that it can then re-invest in some of its other programmes far beyond Earth, at asteroids and at Mars.
It belives this can be achieved by contracting out the more routine tasks in low-Earth orbit to the private sector.
To that end, it is providing seed funding of approximately $800m to SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences Corporation, to help them to develop new rocket and cargo vehicles.
Orbital's rocket is called Antares, and its freighter is known as Cygnus. The pair should go into space together for the first time before the end of the year.
Once these companies have proved the performance of their systems, they will start to receive lucrative ISS re-supply payments.
For SpaceX, its contract is valued at $1.6bn (?1bn) and calls for a minimum of 12 Dragon cargo missions to the ISS.
But freight is just the start. The ferrying of crews to and from the ISS will be next service Nasa buys in.
SpaceX wants this business as well, and is developing the safety and life-support equipment that would allow Dragon to double up as an astronaut taxi.
Continue reading the main storyVital statistics: How do the spacecraft compare?Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter
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