Private ship flies near space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The world's first private supply ship drew close to the International Space Station yesterday in a critical fly-by-without-stopping test in advance of the actual docking.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule was directed to stay at least 1 1/2 miles away from the orbiting lab as it started on a practice lap and checkout of its communication and navigation systems. The historic linkup is scheduled today.

Launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral by the Falcon 9 rocket, it is the first U.S. vessel to visit the space station since NASA's shuttles were retired last summer. Space station astronauts struggled with bad computer monitors and camera trouble as the Dragon zoomed toward them, but a NASA spokesman expected operation would succeed.

"The president just called to say congrats," SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Wednesday via Twitter. "Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer."

Today, space station astronauts Donald Pettit and Andre Kuipers will use the station's robot arm to grab the Dragon and attach it to the complex. The crew will have a week to unload the contents before releasing the spacecraft for re-entry. It is the only supply ship designed to return to Earth with experiments and equipment; the others burn up in the atmosphere. Aboard the Dragon, 19 feet by 12 feet, are food, clothes, batteries and other space station gear. -- AP