Dragon's rendezvous systems had never been tested before in the harsh conditions of space, with the station and the capsule racing around the Earth in tandem at about 17, 000 miles an hour.

WSJ: SpaceX Craft Rehearses Moves

Joanne Maguire, overall head of the company's space programs, said in an interview that the Orion capsule is slated to blast off on top of a heavy-lift version of the U.S. military's Delta IV rocket.

WSJ: Lockheed Martin Sees Space Capsule Test Flight in 2013

That would come when NASA redesigned its spacesuit for the first mission of the Orion capsule scheduled to fly to the space station in 2014.

NPR: School Bus Driver Wins NASA Contest

At 3:22pm ET today, the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific after departing the International Space Station earlier this morning.

FORBES: SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down Safely In The Pacific

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first inhabited space capsule, Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika.

CNN: Monday,

He'll blast off in a Russian capsule, and after it docks with the space station, he'll be able to shake hands with Sergei Volkov, the first child of a Russian cosmonaut to go up.

NPR: Millionaire Follows Dad's Footsteps �� Into Space

And Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who lived aboard the station for 174 days in 2010, pops up a few different times lip synching from inside a space capsule.

MSN: NASA does it 'Gangnam Style' in Johnson Space Center video